PALO ALTO – The Palo Alto City Council moved to replace existing synthetic turf at El Camino Park with cork turf at its Jan. 12 meeting, rejecting the recommendations of county health authorities who recommended that the city install grass.
In a presentation to the council, Division Manager of Open Space, Parks and Golf Sarah Robostelli said the city finished laying synthetic cork turf at Stanford Palo Alto Community Playing Fields (Mayfield) in December and was poised to begin the same process at El Camino Park in June.
However, the City Council paused the project and redirected funding to study the effects of both cork and plastic– infill turf. The study, which recommended the city implement cork infill turf, led the council to approve the re-laying of El Camino Park this year and will inform a similar project at Cubberly Community Center in 2028.
The council’s decision to conduct the study came after the Santa Clara County Public Health Department identified several health risks associated with the artificial turf originally on the fields. Among these risks were excess heat emission and the release of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – chemicals that can contribute to immune and endocrine dysfunction, impaired development and cancer, according to the report.
Lloyd Consulting Group conducted the six-month study from June to December 2025, focusing on PFAS testing, infill material, surface heat, stormwater protection and shock absorption. The study concluded that artificial turf with natural cork infill combined with site-specific drainage measures would reduce surface heat and exposure to harmful chemicals.
In line with these findings, an ad-hoc committee chaired by Mayor Vicki Veenker recommended replacing El Camino Park’s current turf with cork turf and pursuing a natural grass pilot program for future projects, such as the re-laying of Cubberly Community Center in 2028.
“The [ad-hoc] committee really angsted over this,” said Veenker during the meeting. “A year and a half ago, when the issue first came up, I was ready to say no to synthetic turf replacement fields. It was really the biochemist and environmentalist in me that was concerned about this.
But I’m also the mother of two daughters who played soccer for 10 and 13 years apiece…so this is something that has been really personally challenging for me.”
Forty-two members of the Palo Alto community weighed in on the debate between natural grass and turf athletic fields during public comment. Twenty-three advocates of turf said that natural grass fields restrict practice times because they become unplayable during muddy winter months, while the 18 commenters in favor of natural grass cited the negative health and environmental effects of turf.
The study found that replacing the synthetic turf with grass at El Camino Park would displace approximately 1,221 players per year as natural grass becomes slippery and muddy during the winter months and requires maintenance.
“By nature, [grass fields] get muddy, they get wet, they get unplayable,” said Travis Kelly, the President of the Palo Alto Adult Soccer League. “You get three days of hard rain, and it’s closed for three weeks. That’s not a big deal, but for a long-term solution it just doesn’t make sense.”
Kelly said that beyond necessitating long winter closures, grass requires more upkeep than turf to prevent potholes from forming – an intensive process that the city is unable to thoroughly implement.
“Grass has again and again shown that it can’t keep up with the kind of use that a high-volume soccer community like Palo Alto and the Bay Area more broadly requires,” said Kelly. “It’s just not possible unless you have a grounds crew like an English stadium has for a professional soccer team.”
Other community members advocated for grass fields rather than turf, saying the health concerns associated with all types of synthetic turf outweigh its benefits.
“If families really want to raise athletes in Palo Alto, we should let kids play the way elite athletes actually play — on natural grass,” said Shruti Gopinathan, a Palo Alto resident and mother to a six-year-old soccer player. “This is the most responsible long-term choice for kids’ health, our environment and Palo Alto’s values.”
Claire Elliott, a Palo Alto resident and retired ecologist, said that beyond PFAS, other toxic additives in plastic turf can leach into the environment.
“I am frankly dismayed that we are still considering plastic coating our parks with this material,” said Elliott in a public comment. “It’s really not an environmentally sound decision. I think it’s really important that [the council] formally reject the flawed turf study [on El Camino Park] and remove it from the website.”
Vice Mayor Greer Stone cast the council’s sole dissenting vote on the measure to implement synthetic turf. He cited a Dec. 4 email to the council from the Santa Clara County Medical Association, which formally recommended against the use of artificial turf on playing fields, as the reason for his objection.
“In my six years on this council I don’t ever recall receiving a letter from the Santa Clara County Medical Association on any issue,” Stone said during the meeting. “This is not an organization that weighs in lightly, or often, or casually, and when they do I think we have an obligation to listen.”
