Goleta, CA · Case No. 25-0001-CUP
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This permit follows the land, not the owner.
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Goleta, CA · Case No. 25-0001-CUP
This permit follows the land, not the owner.
Learn MoreOn July 2, 2026, the City of Goleta published its official Notice of Public Hearing for Case No. 25-0001-CUP, setting the Planning Commission's vote for July 13, 2026. This is a hearing notice, not the amended application itself, and it is the first public update on this project since the December 2024 project description. Per the notice, the full amended plans and staff report won't be posted until at least 72 hours before the hearing — leaving the community only days to evaluate whatever has changed, on a permit decision that lasts forever.
The original project description separated the farm's five annual festivals into two tiers: four "quarterly" festivals capped at 800 attendees, and one larger "annual" festival capped at 1,500. The new notice erases that distinction. It now describes all five festivals identically, each with an estimated rolling attendance of 800 to 1,500 people.
That is not a scaled-back plan. If every festival can now reach 1,500 attendees, the maximum crowd this site is expected to hold has gone up, not down.
The notice states that the farm's programs and events "will not be available for private or corporate rental and there are no weddings proposed." We take that as a genuine statement of current intent. But intent is not a permit condition. A sentence in a public notice does not bind this applicant five years from now, and it does not bind whoever owns this land after that.
If Fairview Gardens does not intend to rent this site for private events or weddings, there is a simple way to prove it: put that prohibition directly into the Conditional Use Permit, as an explicit, enforceable condition of approval — not a description of intent. And if that ever changes, it should require a separate CUP amendment with its own noticed public hearing, not a quiet administrative modification.
Earlier project materials included cattle among the animals proposed for the site. The current notice lists only 100 chickens and 26 goats and sheep under the City's Animal Keeping regulations. If accurate, this is a genuine reduction — cattle odor and waste are among the most common nuisance complaints near a residential neighborhood.
A four-page hearing notice is not a substitute for the amended application. Until that document is public, these questions remain open:
We will update this page as soon as the amended application and staff report are public. Until then, treat everything above as what a hearing notice tells us — not as confirmation of what has actually changed. The gap between the two is itself worth raising at the hearing.
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. On July 13, 2026, the Planning Commission will decide what this land is permitted to be for generations to come, regardless of who owns it.
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-9PM |
| On-Site Employee Housing | Permanent | 9 units | N/A |
| School Tours | 3x/week, school year | 100 | M-F 9AM-3PM |
| After School Program | 5x/week, school year | 40 | M-F 3:30-5:30PM |
| 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 | 1x/week, summer | 75 | M-F 9AM-3:45PM |
| Kids Gardening Workshops | 4x/year | 25 | M-F 9AM-3:45PM |
| Adult Workshops | 20x/month | 100 | M-F 9AM-3:45PM; Weekends to 9PM |
| Self-Guided Tours | Daily | 5/day | Daylight hours |
| Guided Tours | 3x/week | 30 | M-F 9AM-3PM; Weekends 9AM-5PM |
| Total educational & agricultural sessions | ~1,300/year |
| Use | Frequency | Max Attendees | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Café | Daily | Rolling | 9AM-3:45PM |
| Farm-to-Table Meals | 5x/month (60/year) | 250 | Any day 6:15-9PM |
| Fundraising Events | 4x/year | 500 | Weekdays 6:15-9PM; Sat 12-9PM; Sun 1-9PM |
| Seasonal Events | 4x/year | 500 | Sat 10AM-10PM; Sun 1-10PM |
| Open Houses | 4x/year | 750 | Sat 10AM-10PM; Sun 1-10PM |
| Lectures | 8x/year | 500 | Any day 6:15-9PM |
| Farm Field Days | 6x/year | 250 | Weekends 9AM-5PM |
| Quarterly Festivals | 4x/year | 800 | Sat 10AM-10PM; Sun 1-10PM |
| Annual Festival | 1x/year | 1,500 | Sat 10AM-10PM; Sun 1-10PM |
| Total discrete events | 91/year |
According to the July 13, 2026 hearing notice, counting only evening events with amplified sound, the proposal calls for 277 events (max) and 40,500 attendees (max) per year:
Why so many events, why so many attendees, why so many in the evening with amplified sound — none of which includes daytime school events? The current project description allows events and programs to be “ancillary” to the farm’s educational mission, but it does not specify how many of these events Fairview Gardens itself will put on, versus how many outside non-profits are permitted to hold as fundraisers or other events using Fairview’s grounds as an event venue.
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 277 proposed nighttime events will bring a huge 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 in the northeast corner of the property, away from the farmhouse, rather than consolidated near the site's existing development footprint. Nothing in the application explains why this corner 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 reconsider, where the proposed farm worker housing goes.
The Planning Commission makes its final decision on July 13, 2026. Comments submitted before July 9 will be distributed to the Planning Commission before their decision. Use the tool below to compose your comment. 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 jfullerton@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.
Time and Zoom details to be announced. Check cityofgoleta.org for updates.
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.
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Read the application for yourself. These are the primary source documents behind everything on this site.