At Franceschi Park, the Hillside Gets Its Overhaul First

"The value of Franceschi is not in the house," Historic Landmarks Commissioner Robert Ooley told the Santa Barbara Independent after the commission's January hearing on Franceschi House. He was pointing out that the park carries Dr. Francesco Franceschi's name because of his horticultural work. The building was heavily modified after his time.

For most of the past decade, the public conversation about this Riviera overlook has been about the house. This year, the City's actual work has gone into the ground around it. Crews have been building new trails to the sandstone bust and the upper meadow and repairing broken stairs. An invasive plant has been cleared, and a native planting is scheduled for November. Meanwhile, the house sits in a review process that won't produce final approvals until 2028.

So if you walk up from Mission Ridge this fall, most of what you'll notice has nothing to do with the house.

What the trail crews are building this fall

On August 26, 2026, Santa Barbara Parks and Recreation announced it had begun a multi-week project to build more than 1,500 linear feet of new trail at Franceschi Park. The new routes are designed to connect four places:

1. The parking lot, where most visits begin.
2. The Franceschi Bust, a large sandstone tribute to the horticulturist who set up a nursery and botanic garden on this property in the early 1900s. The City calls it one of the park's "lesser-known features," and the connections are meant to make it easier to reach.
3. The upper meadow, reached through eucalyptus, towering cacti and oaks, with views across Santa Barbara, Goleta and the ocean.
4. The existing trail system, which the new segments join to the three stops above.

The new trails are planned with a compacted surface and drainage features meant to stop erosion and standing water. On the older paths, the plan calls for repairing cracked and crumbling concrete on walkways and stairs, clearing overgrown brush, and leveling uneven ground. Trails the City considers unsafe or redundant are to be closed and covered with natural materials so the hillside can grow back over them.

The plan also includes three new benches made from repurposed wood, placed around the park as places to rest and look out. If you climb these slopes more slowly than you used to, or bring a parent who does, the benches and stair repairs may matter more than anything else on this list.

The City's General Fund is paying for the work. In August the City said it expected trail work to continue into October. We haven't seen a completion notice yet, so crews may still be working on some sections in early October.

The hillside work began a year before the trails

The trails are the newest step in a longer effort. Under the City's Wildfire Resiliency Project, a partnership between Parks and Recreation and the Fire Department, the Franceschi Park work runs from October 2025 through December 2026. The first phase is already complete. Crews pulled invasive plants throughout the park, mainly tree spurge, Euphorbia dendroides, which the City calls a "pervasive and challenging invasive plant found throughout the park."

In spring, the park also hosted a flock of sheep. Between March and June 2026, the herd grazed about 16 acres across Franceschi, Parma, Laurel Canyon and Hale parks before fire season. It spent a few days at each park, clearing overgrown grass and brush along the edges where parkland meets homes.

Next comes planting. The City has scheduled habitat restoration at Franceschi Park for November 2026. Crews will plant more than an acre, mostly in the understory, with more than 250 native and site-appropriate plants. The species list includes:

• Yarrow
• Deerweed
• Coastal prickly pear
• Coast live oak
• Lemonade berry
• Black elderberry
• Blue-eyed grass

Birders may notice what the City's biological assessment found here. The yellow warbler, a special-status species, is known to live in the park. Cooper's hawk, sharp-shinned hawk and the Northern California legless lizard are considered likely to be present. The City says this work is done outside nesting bird season, with a biological survey within 10 days before work starts.

This connects back to Ooley's point. He reminded the commission that Franceschi's plantings were never going to last forever:

"We should not expect that the plants that are in the park now, the ones Franceschi planted, will last forever, because they won't."

In his view, keeping Franceschi's vision means carefully replacing plants as they age. The November planting is native and fire-resilient, so it isn't a replica of his exotic collection. Still, it is the kind of renewal he described. The City's park page still says the grounds hold a rare botanical collection, and some of the hundreds of exotic species Franceschi introduced are still growing there.

Why the house moves on a different clock

The difference in pace comes down to money and process. The trails and plantings are maintenance-scale projects with funding already in place. The house is a historic structure, and its future runs through commissions, environmental review and a construction budget that doesn't exist yet.

The City's own history of the building explains the delay. People have tried to restore Franceschi House since 1971, when a City Council master plan called for demolishing it. In 2001, the City signed a grant agreement with the Pearl Chase Society to design a renovation and raise funds for it. That effort stalled in 2010 and was abandoned in 2015 for lack of funding. In 2018, the Council voted unanimously to replace the building, and both the Pearl Chase Society and the Riviera Association supported the decision. The City also looked at turning the house into an event venue. A restored building would hold only 30 people, and event revenue wouldn't cover upkeep. Selling the property was never an option either, because the deed limits its use to parks and recreation.

The preliminary design that went to the Historic Landmarks Commission on January 14, 2026, puts a raised terrace in the house's footprint. It adds interpretive medallions, plaques and inscribed flooring, plus an accessible route from a new ADA parking space, an improved seating area at the view perch, and minor accessibility upgrades to the existing restrooms. Commissioners voted unanimously to continue the review indefinitely with their feedback. That vote approved neither demolition nor construction.

The biggest open question is what happens to the house's details. According to the Independent, the house has stained-glass windows, an ornamental stairway, a small fireplace imported from New Jersey, three sculptural herms by Ulrich H. Ellerhusen, and 85 decorative medallions. The proposed 19-foot-wide garden terrace includes a standing wall to display some of the medallions, but there isn't room for all of them. Ideas for the rest include storage, documentation, or placing them along the walking paths as interpretive pieces. No final decision has been made.

Here's the City's posted timeline from that point on:

• 2026: A multi-year environmental review begins.
• 2028: Final planning permits and design approvals, with construction documents prepared.
• Construction: No date. $950,000 in City Capital Funds covers design and environmental review, but no money is set aside for building the project.

The Independent's April follow-up described a final resolution as still a long way off. Several speakers at the January hearing described years of sunset picnics and daily visits near the house. For now, the house stays as it is while the trail work goes on around it.

Before you head up this month

• Address: 1501 Franceschi Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93103.
• Opens: 8:00 a.m. under City park rules.
• Parking: Free, on site. The lot is locked every night, and a car left after closing stays locked in until morning.
• Dogs: Welcome on leash.
• Where to start: Once the connector from the lot to the Franceschi Bust opens, it leads on up to the meadow. Some sections may still be under construction in early October.
• Coming in November: Planting crews in the understory as the habitat restoration begins.

Some of the most useful planning we do with families starts with ordinary questions. Can Mom still manage the stairs at her favorite overlook? Would a bench halfway up make the walk possible again? Questions like these often decide whether staying on the Riviera still works. At Terri Dimond, our free seminars help older adults and their families think through aging in place while keeping the places and routines they love. Attend a Free Senior Seminar and bring your questions.