Ulistac Natural Area: Preservation of Open Space

In 1988, the Fairway Glen Golf Course was decommissioned and a new city golf course was built to next to the Santa Clara Convention Center. The former golf course land was rezoned for development. Lick Mill Road, which had been a short, east-west road connecting Agnews Rd. to the James Lick property, was rerouted to become a four-lane boulevard extending from Montague Expressway to Tasman Drive. During construction of the road, 140 Native American burials were exposed. They were reburied elsewhere.

The former golf course was subdivided into parcels for development. After finishing the Bella Vista apartment complex on one parcel, the development company did not renew its option to develop the remaining parcels, due to the drop in real estate values after 1990. The land was left untouched for seven years. During this time, plants began to grow back, and wildlife began to return to the area. Local children played there, the homeless camped out, and people with dirt bikes and four-wheel drive vehicles drove through the site. Although the forty acres essentially took on the habitat characteristics of a vacant lot, some valuable habitat remnants of the pre-agricultural era remained. Many important bird species settled in, from herons to hawks.

In 1996, the developer returned to start work on the Nantucket and Carlyle apartment complexes. The city council vote to officially set aside the remaining land was made in January of 1997. After two and a half years of public discussion and decision-making, the Ulistac Natural Area Master Plan was completed. A groundbreaking ceremony was held in April 2000.

The park has been fenced in to keep out vehicles, and trails were created to allow people to enjoy the park. Natural habitat will be restored gradually. Phase I covers six acres of UNA immediately across the street from Lick Mill Park. Hydroseeding has been used to plant native grasses and wildflowers in grassland areas. New wetlands will be created in the northern portion of the park to mitigate the loss of wetlands to development near Highway 237. Volunteers have been working to plant oak trees to create oak woodlands and an oak savannah. Interpretive signs will be installed along the trails. Volunteers are also hard at work creating a Butterfly Garden of 700 California native shrubs. Future habitat restoration will create additional oak woodlands, as well as Sycamore and riparian woodlands. There may also be demonstration areas showing the Ohlone way of life on the site.

Ulistac Natural Area was officially opened to the public on May 12, 2001.