The Santa Ynez Valley Children's Museum, a nonprofit organization, is working to bring an outdoor children's museum to life at 202 Dairyland Road in Buellton. It would be located on part of the former Willemsen Dairy property next to Riverview Park.
The proposed outdoor campus would feature hands-on learning areas designed to help children explore science and the environment through play, including exhibits focused on simple machines, ecology, and air quality.
Board member Jillian Knight said the organization reworked its original plan, shifting away from a model that relied heavily on memberships and daily attendance and toward one built to compete for education-based grants.
"My approach was looking at how schools would benefit from a program like this and also looking at revamping it so that it fit STEAM education California guidelines," Knight said.
Knight said environmental stewardship is a central theme of the planned campus.
"We really wanted a major focus on how the children in our area and visitors learn how to be stewards of the environment for this area," Knight said.
The City of Buellton has committed funding to help move the project forward.
"The City of Buellton awarded us $500,000 in July," Knight said. "We have a year to spend that and then they've committed $1 million over three years. So this year, 2026 to 2027, there would be an additional $300,000 if we meet their stipulations."
Knight said that money is part of a three-year grant term. If the project remains within the grant's scope, the city could provide another $300,000 this year, with a final phase structured as a matching grant.
Some residents near the site say they welcome the idea. Alina Anderson, who lives around the corner from the proposed location, said she is already looking forward to what the museum could bring to the neighborhood.
"I think that's how a child's brain develops through those kind of experiences, so I'm very inspired and since I live around the corner, I look forward to hearing children's voices because my home is actually just on the other side of that wall," Anderson said.
Not everyone is without reservations. Buellton resident Henry Vildosola, who said he visits Riverview Park regularly with his family, called the concept exciting but expressed concern about whether funding commitments would hold.
"It's always cool to see the city building more opportunities for kids to have fun and learn and just be engaged," Vildosola said. "We do not actually follow through with continuing the investment into the children's programs."
Organizers say if permits and funding move forward as planned, the children's museum could open as early as this fall.
