Goleta, CA · Case No. 25-0001-CUP
Protect the
Soil Now!
This permit follows the land, not the owner.
Learn More
Goleta, CA · Case No. 25-0001-CUP
This permit follows the land, not the owner.
Learn MoreOn July 13, 2026, the Planning Commission took up this application as the sole item on its agenda. After hours of public comment and detailed questions from the commissioners, the Commission did not approve the project. It continued the item to a future meeting this fall — no date has been set — and directed the applicant to go back and submit a further revised project description addressing the concerns raised.
Ahead of that hearing the applicant had already revised its project description, and at the start of the meeting published an additional list of proposed changes and suggested permit conditions. Those revisions trimmed the proposal in a few places. But in the areas that matter most to this neighborhood — the size and frequency of events, amplified sound, how late events run, traffic, and where the housing goes — it still falls well short of a permit for a working farm.
Public pressure is working. The applicant has now conceded several points — but each is still only proposed. Intent is not a permit. Every one of these must be written into the Conditional Use Permit as a binding, enforceable condition, or it means nothing the day this farm changes hands.
Even with those changes, the revised plan still reads as a venue permit on farmland:
One of the clearest community benefits in the plan — a daily after-school program for local children, five days a week — has been dropped from the revised proposal. At the July hearing, the applicant said it was cut because of the City fees it would trigger. But commissioners pushed back: other local non-profits pay those same fees, and there was a simple alternative on the table — partnering with a public library to run the program without them.
Yet the same revision keeps the annual festival at its full 1,500-person cap and preserves the full slate of fundraisers, open houses, and festivals. When the one program that most directly serves neighborhood families is what gets sacrificed — while the large public events are left untouched — it says a great deal about what this application is really built to do.
These are the standards we are asking the Planning Commission to hold this permit to:
The next Planning Commission hearing has not yet been scheduled, but the revised application is being written now and Staff is analyzing it. When it surfaces, things will move fast. Two things make a difference right now: send your comment — it becomes part of the record the Commission reads before the next hearing — and join Protect the Soil Now, with your signature or a financial contribution.
The City of Goleta is reviewing a Conditional Use Permit for Fairview Gardens, a permanent land use entitlement that binds every future owner to whatever uses are approved today. The Planning Commission will decide what this land is permitted to be for generations to come, regardless of who owns it. The figures below reflect the applicant’s revised proposal as of the July 2026 hearing — measured against what a permit for a working farm should allow.
The application covers two distinct categories of use. The first includes the farm operations, educational programs, and community activities that Fairview Gardens has long been known for, and that this community broadly supports. The second is a large-scale event operation that the application describes in broad terms, with few definitions and no restrictions on who can attend, how events are priced, or what purposes they serve.
| Use | Frequency | Max Attendees | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seasonal Farm Operations | Year-round | Staff only | Varies |
| Farm Stand | Year-round daily | Rolling | 9AM-7PM |
| On-Site Employee Housing | Permanent | 9 units | N/A |
| School Tours | 2x/week, school year | 50 | M-F 9AM-3PM |
| Pre-K Sprouts Program | 5x/week, year-round | 25 | M-F 9AM-3:45PM |
| Spring Break Camp | 1x/year | 50 | M-F 9AM-3:45PM |
| Summer Camp | 1 week/month, Jul-Aug | 75 | M-F 9AM-3:45PM |
| Kids Gardening Workshops | 4x/year | 25 | M-F 9AM-3:45PM |
| Adult Workshops | 4x/month | 50 | M-F 9AM-3:45PM; Weekends to 9PM |
| Self-Guided Tours | Daily | 5/day | Daylight hours |
| Guided Tours | 1x/week | 30 | M-F 9AM-3PM; Weekends 9AM-5PM |
| Educational & agricultural sessions | Reduced from the original plan |
| Use | Frequency | Max Attendees | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Café | Daily | Rolling | 9AM-3:45PM |
| Farm-to-Table Meals | 1x/month, Apr-Oct (7/year) | 150 | Any day 6:15-9PM |
| Fundraising Events | 4x/year | 500 | Weekdays to 9PM; Sat 12-9PM; Sun 1-8PM |
| Seasonal Events | 2x/year | 500 | Sat 10AM-9PM; Sun 1-8PM |
| Open Houses | 4x/year | 750 | Sat 10AM-9PM; Sun 1-9PM |
| Lectures | 8x/year | 250 | Any day 6:15-9PM |
| Farm Field Days | 4x/year | 250 | Weekends 9AM-5PM |
| Quarterly Festivals | 3x/year | 500 | Sat 10AM-9PM; Sun 1-9PM |
| Annual Festival | 1x/year | 1,500 | Sat 10AM-9PM; Sun 1-9PM |
| Total discrete events | 33/year |
The June revisions cut the number of events — from 91 down to 33 a year — but not their scale or their hours. The plan still authorizes a single festival for up to 1,500 people, plus fundraisers, open houses, seasonal events, and quarterly festivals drawing 500 to 750 each, most of them in the evening with amplified sound running as late as 9 PM. None of that counts the daytime school programs.
The project description still allows these events to be “ancillary” to the farm’s educational mission, but it does not say how many Fairview Gardens itself will host versus how many outside groups may hold as fundraisers, using the farm’s grounds as an event venue.
Measured against a permit for a working farm, the gap is specific:
The Planning Commission has a choice: approve a farm permit, or approve a venue permit on agricultural land. What follows is our position on which one this should be.
We believe Fairview Gardens can be something extraordinary. A working farm, open to the community, rooted in education and agriculture.
We support the following uses at Fairview Gardens:
Turning the peaceful Fairview Gardens into a noisy and congested daytime and nighttime event venue.
As written, the application makes no distinction between events put on by Fairview Gardens and outside events that use Fairview's grounds.
These proposed evening events will bring a large number of cars – traffic – to a peaceful neighborhood and farm that has very little evening traffic. Proposed daytime events will bring significantly more cars to the area.
Concerns include:
The application includes nine units of permanent, on-site farm employee housing. We support housing for farm staff — it is difficult to run a working farm in Goleta without it. Our concern is narrower and more specific: where that housing is sited on a 12.23-acre parcel governed by an agricultural conservation easement.
Nine units of on-site housing, in two very different locations:
Eight of the nine proposed units — the large majority of new permanent housing — are sited toward the northeast of the property, away from the farmhouse, rather than consolidated near the site's existing development footprint. The June revision shifted the cluster slightly south and added a gated access, but left the fundamental question unanswered: nothing in the application explains why this location was chosen over siting closer to the farmhouse core, where housing would sit alongside other new and existing structures rather than extending permanent development into a currently active or less-disturbed part of the farm.
A conservation easement requires at least 88% of this parcel to remain in active agricultural production. Where nine permanent dwelling units go is not a minor site-plan detail — it is a decision about which part of this working farm becomes, forever, residential.
We are asking the Planning Commission to consider conditions that make this a farm permit, not a venue permit — and to require the applicant to justify, or reconsider, where the proposed farm worker housing goes.
The July 13, 2026 hearing was continued — the Planning Commission has not yet set a date for the next one, and comments are still open. Every comment submitted now becomes part of the record the Commission reads before it takes the project up again. Use the tool below to compose yours. You will have a chance to review and edit everything before it sends. It goes from your own email address, in your own name, directly to the City.
Prefer to write your own email instead? Send it directly to bhiefield@cityofgoleta.gov and PERmeetings@cityofgoleta.gov, and consider copying the Planning Commission Chair at amiller@cityofgoleta.gov and the City Council member for this district at lreyes-martin@cityofgoleta.gov.
Written comments enter the record. A room full of engaged residents sends a signal that no email can.
The July 13, 2026 hearing was continued, and the Commission has not yet scheduled the next one. Check cityofgoleta.org for the date, time, and Zoom details.
This is the hearing where the permit will be approved, conditioned, or denied. Your presence here is the most impactful action you can take.
Written comments submitted before the hearing will be distributed to the Planning Commission. Submit yours below.
Optional, but adding your address shows the Commission you are a local resident. Comments from nearby neighbors carry particular weight on traffic and noise.
This opens your email client with your comment pre-populated. Your comment is sent from your own email address and entered into the official public record.
This fight is won by neighbors showing up together. There are three ways to stand with us today — do as many as you can.
Your comment becomes part of the official record the Planning Commission reads before the next hearing. It takes two minutes with the tool above.
Compose your commentJoin the list of supporters. We’ll let you know when the next hearing is scheduled and when your voice is needed — and a longer list of names carries weight with the City.
Add my nameProtect the Soil Now has retained an environmental attorney and commissioned an independent acoustics study — funded entirely by neighbors. Every contribution keeps the effort going.
Read the application for yourself. These are the primary source documents behind everything on this site.