Palo Alto
In April 2026, the Palo Alto City Council asked staff to look into creating a policy document on prohibiting artificial turf in City playgrounds. On September 22nd, staff presented at a Palo Alto Parks and Recreation Commission (PRC) meeting, replacing policy with guidelines (policy uses “shall”, while guidelines are flexible) where staff stated that playground designers are experts and that “we need choice,” “let’s not cut off the possibility that any particular surface is wrong, instead let’s look at each situation as it comes up.” The presentation contained a multitude of pictures of playgrounds having pour-in-place rubber (PIP) or artificial turf. In short, staff suggested that plastic should always be on the table for any playground.
After in-person and remote public comments, as well as Commissioner statements and questions emphasizing that children should be the most important consideration rather than playground designer concepts, the Parks & Rec Commission (PRC) told staff that their proposal needs more work. The PRC sent staff to rework their proposal.
Staff were set to return to the next PRC meeting on October 27th. However a Sierra Club Loma Prieta petition may have convinced them to hold off, as they decided to postpone their presentation. The petition ended on Tuesday, October 27th.
Los Altos
Advocates in Los Altos created a petition opposing Los Altos’s staff and council determination to replace engineered wood fiber (EWF) in all Los Altos playgrounds with pour-in-place rubber (PIP):
Los Altans for Natural Park Surfaces - Keep Pour-in-Place (PIP) out of parks, playgrounds
Sierra Club Loma Prieta and Los Altans for Natural Park Surfaces went door-to-door to encourage Los Altans to sign, generating significant community support. Petition pressure and in-person commenters at PARC (Parks, Art, Recreation and Culture) Commission meetings encouraged the Commission to reconsider their position. On September 15th, PARC recommended “EWF as the primary surface material for the renovations at both Shoup Park and Grant Park with supplemental mats in high fall / high traffic areas. No PIP surfacing will be included.”
While the foregoing was exciting in the short term, on September 29th, the City Manager, Gabe England, stated that, in opposition to PARC’s determination and citizen input, the playground upgrade project is moving ahead with a surface that will be a combination of EWF and PIP, with a pilot project to evaluate the effectiveness of Corkeen. Earlier drawings showed minimal EWF with large swaths of PIP. This, apparently, is the Staff and Council’s idea of a compromise. Sierra Club Loma Prieta and Los Altans for Natural Park Surfaces disagree so this campaign continues.