Seven Santa Monica neighborhood organizations and the Santa Monica Democratic Club have formally called on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District to abandon plans to install artificial turf at local elementary schools, submitting letters of opposition ahead of the school board's upcoming May 19 meeting.
The neighborhood groups — Friends of Sunset Park, the North of Montana Association, Ocean Park Association, Pico Neighborhood Association, Santa Monica Mid City Neighbors, Santa Monica Northeast Neighbors and the Wilshire Montana Neighborhood Coalition — submitted a joint resolution urging the board to impose an immediate moratorium on new synthetic turf at all elementary school sites and pre-K centers.
The resolution also calls on SMMUSD to collaborate with the city and Santa Monica College to expand natural grass fields and to examine a list of seven underutilized district-owned properties that could be developed into additional playing fields.
"This is not merely a preference, but an urgent environmental, health, and civic necessity," the groups wrote in the joint letter addressed to the SMMUSD Board of Education.
The Democratic Club passed its own resolution in November 2025 urging a ban on artificial turf across all locally owned public land, and both groups cited research on chemical exposure, microplastic pollution and extreme surface temperatures as central concerns.
Franklin Became the Flashpoint
Opposition to turf fields crystallized in spring 2025 after the board voted 7-0 in May to approve a campus renovation plan for Franklin Elementary that included replacing the school's deteriorating grass field with a newer synthetic surface. More than 1,200 residents signed a petition opposing the plan, and state Sen. Ben Allen joined the six neighborhood organizations in pushing back.
The district has operated synthetic turf at multiple campuses for years. Santa Monica High School has had a synthetic field since 2011. John Adams Middle School fields were first installed in 2008 and replaced in 2018. Lincoln Middle School converted to synthetic turf in 2019, and Will Rogers Learning Community received a new cork-infill field in 2023.
Plans call for synthetic turf at Grant Elementary in the next facilities cycle, followed by McKinley and Roosevelt elementaries. The four-phase Franklin renovation is funded by Measure QS, a $495 million bond voters approved in November 2024. The district has said the Franklin surface decision will not be finalized until fall 2027.
What the District's Study Found
The district commissioned an independent study from NV5, a global environmental consulting firm, examining the tradeoffs between the two surfaces across roughly 15 acres of natural grass and 12 acres of artificial turf.
On the operational side, the numbers favor synthetic surfaces. The district's natural grass fields consume approximately 20 million gallons of water annually, require more than 1,600 hours of labor per year and cost roughly $361,000 annually to maintain — about $24,019 per acre. Artificial turf maintenance runs approximately $822 per acre per year.
The usability gap is even more stark. Natural grass can safely handle about 24 hours of weekly use before requiring recovery time, limiting annual availability to roughly 1,100 hours. Artificial turf can accommodate more than 4,800 hours of annual use. California water conservation requirements also loom, with potential penalties of up to $10,000 daily for noncompliance by 2040.
Health and Environmental Concerns Remain
The same study acknowledged that the health and environmental concerns raised by critics are not unfounded. Multiple peer-reviewed studies confirmed the presence of PFAS — so-called forever chemicals — heavy metals and other compounds in artificial turf materials. One Stockholm study found PFAS in 76% of backing samples from 103 football fields.
Research also documents that turf fields release approximately 3 to 5 kilograms of microplastics per field per year. On hot days, artificial turf surfaces can reach temperatures of 158 to 171 degrees Fahrenheit under laboratory conditions — 35 to 64 degrees higher than natural grass — though the district's coastal location provides some moderation.
The NV5 study noted that the district's use of organic cork infill rather than crumb rubber has reduced several chemical exposure pathways, and that some newer-generation turf products show non-detectable PFAS levels.
Injury research was mixed, with natural grass associated with higher rates of lacerations and fractures, while artificial turf showed increased lower-extremity injuries including higher ACL injury rates in high school football and girls' soccer.
Broader Momentum
The Santa Monica City Council voted 7-0 on Jan. 27 to ban new artificial turf on all city-owned land as part of its 25-year Parks and Recreation Vision Plan, though the ban does not apply to SMMUSD property. While critics of turf rejoiced at the City’s ban, they have also questioned the Joint Use Agreement between City Hall and SMMUSD that effectively makes school fields function as public parks in exchange for annual payments.
LAUSD has prohibited new artificial turf at early education, elementary and middle schools. At the state level, the Department of Toxic Substances Control has included artificial turf in its Priority Product evaluation, a process that could eventually require manufacturers to conduct mandatory alternatives analyses.
The open session for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, will begin at 6 p.m., instead of 5:30 p.m. Closed session will begin at its normal 4:30 p.m. start time.