Current Projects

Chanticleer Avenue County Park is a 4.5-acre neighborhood park in the Live Oak community. Construction of phase 1 is complete. The park opened on January 18th, 2020. During fall 2020 Parks staff held a series of community meetings to get input on phase 2 park improvements at Chanticleer Park to include in the Prop 68 Statewide Park Program application. Based on the input received at these meetings, the Draft Phase 2 Site Plan has been developed.

• Chanticleer County Park Draft Phase 2 Site Plan PDF

The Coastal Rail Trail Segments 10 and 11 Project is an approximately 4.5-mile ADA-accessible bicycle/pedestrian path that generally extends along the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line (SCBRL) corridor, from 17th Avenue in Live Oak to State Park Drive in the Seacliff neighborhood (see maps above). The trail will provide a safe and beautiful experience for recreation, active transportation, and environmental and cultural education along the Monterey Bay. Joggers, bicycle commuters, wheelchair users, kids walking/biking to school, families with strollers, and walkers will all be able to enjoy the paved asphalt surface. These two segments of the Coastal Rail Trail connect to 10 schools, 18 parks, 13 public beaches, 2 community centers, and multiple residential neighborhoods and commercial areas through some of the densest portions of Santa Cruz County.

• For more information, please visit: www.santacruzcountyca.gov/railtrail 

$400,000 in project funds have been confirmed from a combination of County Park Friends fundraising and District 1 discretionary funding. The money has been used to install new playground equipment, rubberized safety surfacing, and path of travel modifications to increase accessibility. The project is expected to be completed in Winter 2024/2025.

Freedom Lake, a cherished natural resource for both wildlife and the community, has faced challenges from invasive species that disrupt native habitats and diminish water quality. In a series of upcoming workday events, dedicated teams from Watsonville Wetlands Watch and the California Conservation Corps will work side by side to remove invasive trees and plants that are impairing native habitat and obstructing the open viewing and access routes of park users. Consistent with best practices for riparian habitat and vegetation management, willow trees will be pruned and limbed up to reduce hazards for park users and enhance lines of site and the feeling of openness to enhance park user safety. Following winter rains approximately 100 native understory plants and shrubs will be planted within the Acacia removal areas in order to increase diversity of native plants growing on site and improve the park user experience. 

• For more information about the partnership to begin restoration of Freedom Lake click here.

County Parks received a grant from the State Coastal Conservancy to fund the planning, environmental review, and preliminary design work for this exciting project. The project entails building an environmental education center at Greyhound Rock. The environmental education center is planned to include simple, rustic cabins for overnight coastal accommodations, a communal restroom facility, trails, outdoor gathering areas, interpretive elements, the conversion of existing unused structures for environmental education programming, and the restoration of coastal bluff habitat. When not being used for environmental education programming, the cabins will be available for use by the public and will provide much-needed low-cost overnight accommodations along the Central Coast.

Hidden Beach County Park has one upcoming improvement: the installation of a prefabricated permanent restroom. The restroom will be accessible to people with mobility impairments and provide flush toilets and running water for handwashing. The facility is sited between the existing playground and the service road. The project is expected to be completed in summer 2025. 

The Live Oak Library Annex project is managed by the County of Santa Cruz Department of Public Works.  Located at Simpkins Family Swim Center and Live Oak Community Center, it will include flexible program space, a classroom, study rooms, public computers and laptop bar, and a new plaza intergrated with the existing community facilities.  These improvements will support a wide range of library and enrichment programming for the benefit of the community for years to come.   

• For more information click here.

County Parks, in partnership with the Santa Cruz County Sanitation District and a consulting team of arborists, biologists, and entomologists is updating the 2010 Moran Lake Monarch Butterfly Habitat Management Plan (MBMHP) to reflect the latest science and guidance from the Xerces Society and others on overwintering monarch habitat. The plan will be used to guide ongoing and upcoming management activities in the park, including drainage improvements, tree management, and tree planting. A community meeting to review a draft of the updated MBHMP was held in July 2024.

In response to community feedback in July 2024, the team completed a wind study in April 2025. The goal of the windy study was to identify tree management actions that could be taken to reduce the risk of tree failure while protecting monarch habitat. The wind study analyzed how the existing tree canopy surrounding the Sanitation facility and Moran Lake County Park protects the Monarch overwintering habitat from wind impacts, and how those conditions would change under various tree management scenarios. The wind study found that the tree canopy surrounding Moran Lake County Park (areas A1, A2, B, and C in the graphic below) could be removed or reduced in height without impacting overwintering habitat, and that trees within the critical windbreak along Placer Street (area H in the graphic below) could be reduced to an 80-foot-height without impacting overwintering habitat. The consultant team is working on an additional analysis to determine whether selective trees in the critical windbreak could be removed to allow for replanting of a better-suited species and a phased replacement of the blue gum eucalyptus in this area over the long-term.

Draft Wind Study - Moran Lake Monarch Butterfly Habitat and Tree Management Assessment April 2025

A community meeting to present the findings of the wind study and collect community feedback on how the wind study should inform the updated MBHMP will be held at 5:30pm on Tuesday, June 17, 2025 at the Live Oak Community Center, 979 17^th Avenue, Santa Cruz. After the community meeting, and based on community input, the project team will incorporate the wind study into the updated MBHMP in Summer 2025.

Based on the wind study data, County Parks is planning to conduct trimming of all the trees along the north and west banks of Moran Lake (North and South Lakeside, areas B and C) to reduce their overall height by roughly one-third as well as removal of the remaining trees on the 40 Moran Way Parcel (area A1) in mid-May 2025. This work is expected to improve public safety and reduce the risk of tree failure while protecting the long-term viability of monarch habitat. A contract with Lewis Tree Service to conduct the work will be taken to the Board of Supervisors for approval on May 6, 2025. The upcoming tree work is science-based and is part of our ongoing efforts to manage monarch habitat at Moran Lake and increase climate resilience of this neighborhood treasure. Any trees removed will be replaced with native tree species that support local biodiversity and monarch habitat. Replacement tree planting will happen in Fall 2025 after the onset of winter rains.

The County is working with a finite budget for tree management and is prioritizing trimming of the trees in the North and South Lakeside areas (areas B and C) and removal of the remaining trees on the 40 Moran Way parcel (area A1) because trees in those areas are closest to recent failures in February 2024 or have been recommended for trimming or removal by the County’s consulting arborist. The critical windbreak along Placer Street (area H) is not included in this summer’s tree management work because many of the trees in this area were trimmed by the Sanitation District in Summer 2024. Additional tree management work is planned for next summer and is expected to include the Placer Street edge. The southeast groves (area A2) are not included in this summer’s tree management work because many of the trees are on private property.

County Parks’ long-term plan for Moran Lake County Park is to eventually phase-out the non-native blue gum eucalyptus trees that surround Moran Lake and replace them with more suitable native tree species that support native biodiversity, enhance riparian habitat in addition to monarch habitat, are resilient to climate change, and do not grow as tall as the blue gum eucalyptus. The eucalyptus grove surrounding the Sanitation District where the monarchs overwinter is much more sensitive to disruption and will not be modified. To support the long-term transition away from eucalyptus, County Parks hosted a volunteer tree planting day on December 7, 2024. Approximately 30 volunteers helped to plant 64 native trees (53 Monterey Cypress and 11 White Alders). The trees were planted along the north and southeast banks of Moran Lake, in areas identified for tree planting in the current 2010 and past versions of the Monarch Habitat Management Plan, as well as the recent draft update. Additional native trees will be planted this fall and in future years.

The current draft update of the Moran Lake Monarch Butterfly Habitat Management Plan can be viewed or downloaded below:

• Draft 2024 Moran Lake Monarch Butterfly Habitat Management Plan (no appendices)
• Draft 2024 Moran Lake Monarch Butterfly Habitat Management Plan with appendices

This work is partially funded by a grant from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

Santa Cruz County’s North Coast has limited visitor amenities, infrastructure, and law enforcement, and high visitation levels have increasingly overwhelmed the area and threatened natural resources, public safety, and visitor experience. The intent of the North Coast Facilities Management Plan is to improve management while preserving one of California’s most beautiful stretches of coastline.

Led by Santa Cruz County Parks and funded through twin $100,000 grants from the California Coastal Conservancy and California State Parks, a group of federal, state, and local agencies are working together to identify priority coastal projects between the Santa Cruz city limits and San Mateo County line. Based on prior community and stakeholder engagement, a draft list of priority projects has been identified for inclusion in the North Coast Facilities Management Plan that aim to enhance the North Coast visitor experience, manage visitor impacts, and preserve natural resources.

• Review the Final Plan
• Explore the Webmap
• November 30, 2023 Public Meeting Recording

In 1997, the County of Santa Cruz Department of Parks, Open Space and Cultural Services was gifted a 79.5-acre parcel, known as the Pace property. For the last twenty years, the land has been closed to the public as there has been no way to access it from nearby existing park, Quail Hollow Ranch County Park. The Quail Hollow Ranch County Park Trails Construction project expands the park’s existing 4.5-mile trail network into the nearby Pace property, currently inaccessible to the public from the park. Construction includes the 0.5-mile Pace Access Trail and the 2.0-mile figure-8 Pace Loop Trail. The Pace Access Trail will connect the park’s existing trail system to the nearby Pace property and allow visitors to experience the diverse sandhill ecology.

Volunteer Opportunity Available 

At our Quail Hollow Ranch County Park, we have a unique volunteer opportunity coming up! The Quail Hollow Ranch County Park Trails Construction project expands the park’s existing 4.5-mile trail network into the nearby Pace property, currently inaccessible to the public from the park.

Help us expand the trail system at Quail Hollow Ranch County Park and you will receive training, leadership, but most of all be part of a unique project that will benefit hikers in the future forever! Construction will be directed by County Parks and Santa Cruz Mountain Stewardship staff

The Construction includes a 0.5-mile access trail, and a 2.0-mile figure-8 loop trail into the Pace Family Wilderness through the diverse sandhill ecology.

For more information about volunteering with us email: volunteer@parks.santacruzcountyca.gov

Led by Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship (SCMTS), we’ve designed a new pump track for Felton’s Coverage Bridge County Park, located at the intersection of Graham Hill Road and Mount Hermon Road. The proposed track will be a paved surface with a series of rollers, jumps, and banked turns that connect in a closed loop. The track would be used for biking, skateboarding, or roller skating by both youth and adults. The proposed track would replace the volleyball court in the park and be surrounded by native drought tolerant landscaping.  

Simpkins Family Swim Center has completed the 50 Meter Pool renovation, upgraded the pool lights and tile throughout the lap pool. In addition, the pool boilers were replaced, and maintenance staff resurfaced the pool deck. The renovations were funded in part by State Prop. 86 Per Capita Grant and Measure 6 funding sources. The pool reopened on June 13, 2022. The final phase of this plan is to replace the waterslide, and we are currently working on getting final plans and cost estimates together for that project. Anticipated completion of the installation of a new waterslide should be in early 2026.

In August 2023, the Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the purchase of a 38.5 acre parcel on Whiting Road, an unused patch of low-lying woodland that sits between two agricultural fields, and adjacent to the Santa Cruz County fairgrounds.

View some of our recently completed projects!