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Palo Alto commission recommends El Camino turf replacement after study; asks for mitigation, grass pilot
Summary
The Parks & Recreation Commission voted 4–1 on Oct. 28 to recommend City Council accept a newly updated turf study and proceed with replacement of the El Camino Park synthetic turf, while directing staff to emphasize environmental risk mitigation and to pursue pilot projects to improve natural-grass capacity and monitoring.
The Palo Alto Parks & Recreation Commission voted 4–1 Wednesday to recommend that City Council accept the Study and Assessment of Turf Systems for the City of Palo Alto and direct staff to proceed with replacement of the El Camino Park synthetic playing field consistent with the study’s recommendations.
The study, prepared for the city by Lloyd Consulting Group with staff oversight, evaluates playability, lifecycle cost, environmental health concerns including PFAS and microplastics, surface heat and waste/recycling options for turf. It compared existing synthetic systems, ‘performance’ natural-grass profiles and hybrid approaches and incorporated public comments and a January Santa Clara County public-health review.
The commission’s decision followed a long public comment period, with sports clubs and youth organizations urging replacement and retention of synthetic fields for year-round playability, and environmental groups, residents and members of the Sierra Club urging the city to prioritize natural-grass pilot programs and to delay replacements until more data is gathered. Troy and community speakers also raised concerns about field lifespan and disposal costs for synthetic turf.
Vice Chair Jeff Greenfield moved the staff recommendation and Commissioner Anne Cribbs seconded it. Roll call showed Chair Freeman, Commissioner Cribbs, Commissioner Dang and Vice Chair Greenfield voting yes; Commissioner Kleinhouse voted no. The motion directs staff to proceed with replacement “in a manner consistent with the study’s findings” and to incorporate the study’s recommended risk-mitigation measures — for example, strategies to reduce turf-surface heat, controls to limit microplastic migration, and specifying PFAS-free products where practicable — and to pilot ways to increase natural-grass carrying capacity on selected fields.
Anthony Stevenson, a principal with Lloyd Consulting Group, emphasized that natural-grass performance is climate-dependent and that grass systems common in warm-season climates (e.g., Bermuda) do not perform the same here. The updated report provides a refined account of field-use hours after correcting earlier double-counting, a detailed life-cycle cost model, and a menu of mitigation and procurement measures for future synthetic installations.
What happens next: The commission’s recommendation goes to City Council for consideration. Staff said they will return with contract documents for removal and installation work for El Camino and with more detailed specifications that respond to the commission’s requests, including language on recycling and disposal, contractor warranties and pilot-program parameters.
Community response was mixed in the meeting: youth-sport representatives said year-round reliability and safety are critical for hundreds of children and their families, while environmental advocates urged caution and recommended funding pilots to test intensive grass-management approaches before approving another long-term synthetic installation.
The commission asked staff to present clear monitoring and reporting metrics to Council if the city proceeds: expected lifespan and replacement cycle, projected maintenance budgets, how end-of-life recycling will be verified and an outline of a pilot program to test ways to increase natural-grass usable hours and reduce chemical inputs.
