Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Goleta, CA

Goleta was incorporated on February 1, 2002, after spending decades as the largest unincorporated populated area in Santa Barbara County.

Goleta's name is the Spanish word for "schooner," and the city's official nickname is "The Good Land."

Goleta had a population of 32,690 at the 2020 census, up from 29,888 in 2010.

Census QuickFacts counts 12,348 Goleta households for 2020-2024, with a median household income of $122,370 and a median owner-occupied home value of $1,062,100.

The Goleta area was Chumash homeland for thousands of years, with at least five Native towns around its old estuary lagoon, and the Chumash of the area were known as Canaliños for the canoes they built to reach the Channel Islands.

Gaspar de Portolà's 1769 land expedition, the first Spanish overland expedition into California, camped beside the Goleta estuary on its way to Monterey Bay.

Goleta covers roughly 8 square miles between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, immediately west of Santa Barbara.

Goleta is known for its closeness to the University of California, Santa Barbara, which moved onto part of a former Marine base next to the city in 1954.

The historic Stow House, an 1872 Gothic Revival ranch house built for W.W. Stow's 1,043-acre lemon ranch, still stands beside Lake Los Carneros and is a Santa Barbara County landmark.

Goleta's Coronado Butterfly Preserve protects the largest overwintering grove of monarch butterflies and provides access to the Ellwood Mesa open space on the bluffs above the Pacific.