Harrington Park closed for construction on April 6, 2026, and the city held a groundbreaking on May 8. The City of San Carlos expects the work to be finished in early 2027. So downtown's main gathering space will be closed for all of fall and the holidays. Every event the city has scheduled from late October through early December is placed somewhere else: on Laurel Street, on Cherry Street, or in Wheeler Plaza. The park was supposed to anchor downtown, and this season the street around it is filling that role.
What the Fence Actually Takes Away
On the city's downtown revitalization page, the construction site looks smaller than it feels. Crews work 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays. Construction vehicles come in through the alley behind Laurel Street, entering and leaving from Cherry and Olive Streets. Four public parking spaces behind the park are being removed to make room for a permanent drop-off and loading zone. Laurel Street storefronts stay open the whole time.
The project has needed some creative fixes from the start. In mid-May, a storm drain trench across Laurel Street fell right on the Hometown Days parade route. The construction team covered it with steel plates for the May 16 and 17 weekend so the parade could go ahead. Around the same time, the blue figure sculpture Balancing Act moved to a new spot near Laurel and Cherry Streets. The corner where Cherry meets Laurel keeps coming up, and it becomes the center of the holiday season.
The Park's Functions, Relocated
A downtown park mostly gives people somewhere to sit, somewhere to gather in a crowd, and somewhere to linger between errands. Since spring, the city has added each of those somewhere else.
- Seating. Adirondack chairs went up along Laurel Street after Hometown Days, and the city added more on August 18.
- Crowds. Wheeler Plaza hosted the city's World Cup watch parties. About 500 fans showed up for the USA's opening match against Paraguay in June, many carrying takeout from downtown restaurants.
- Play. Under the "Life on Laurel" series, a Friday night in August brought cornhole, checkers, Connect 4 and Jenga to the 700 block. On October 1, KO Fitness set up an obstacle course on the street.
- The Sunday market. Since 2021, the San Carlos Farmers' Market had used a curbside "promenade" layout. In May, the city worked with the Urban Village Farmers' Market Association and fire officials to move booths away from the curbs and extend the market into the Wheeler Plaza parking lot. Cherry Street reopened to traffic and parking, and the market added seating, umbrellas and games.
The market still runs every Sunday year-round, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at 600 Laurel Street. The one exception was this weekend: it closed for the Art & Wine Faire, which ran October 10 and 11 on Laurel Street at San Carlos Avenue. The city emailed businesses around the park ahead of that weekend about street and traffic changes.
The Rest of the Calendar, Placed Street by Street
With the Faire over, here is what's left on the city's calendar through early December. Each event has its own footprint, and none of them include the park.
- Spooky Streets entry deadline, Friday, October 23. The city's home-decorating contest announces winners on October 30.
- Goblin Walk, Friday, October 30, 4 to 5:30 p.m. Children 7 and under, with an adult, trick-or-treat along Laurel Street from San Carlos Avenue to Arroyo Avenue, stopping at businesses that display a Goblin Walk sign. The first 600 trick-or-treaters can get a bag at the Parks & Recreation tent or from any volunteer.
- Adult Community Center Diwali celebration, Friday, November 6, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Registration is required.
- Diwali Downtown, Saturday, November 14, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., on Laurel Street. Performers include students from the Kathakaars School of Dance and San Carlos Sitaras, with more to be announced, plus music, crafts and food from local chefs.
- Night of Holiday Lights, Friday, December 4, 5 to 8:30 p.m. The event runs along Laurel Street from San Carlos Avenue to Cherry Street, with the main stage on Cherry Street. It includes kids' activities, arts and crafts, beer and wine sales, hot chocolate, a holiday show, lights, snow and live music.
The holiday event shows the pattern most clearly. The biggest evening of the downtown year puts its stage on a side street a short walk from the fenced park, and the Laurel Street route ends at Cherry. The festivities run in a line along the street.
The Storefronts Along the Fence
The businesses right next to the construction have the most at stake this fall. In June, the city highlighted Mama Coco's, at 753 Laurel Street, as a restaurant "located adjacent to the ongoing improvements at Harrington Park." The Adult Community Center's Lunch Bunch program, run with the Friends of the San Carlos Adult Community Center, ate there that month. City staff also describe Faith & Spirits, at 765 Laurel, as directly adjacent to the park. Town is a few doors away at 716 Laurel.
The city formed a Downtown Prosperity Team in November 2025, before construction started, to support businesses during and after the work. It presented its plans to the City Council on March 23. Most of what followed is small and practical. The city sends emails ahead of each round of alley work. At a coffee chat for business and property owners, the topics were employee parking permits, enforcement and garage wayfinding. During the week of September 28, crews installed two informational boards on the 700 block, one in the raised planter near Diddams and one near U.S. Bank, showing what the finished park will look like.
Not everyone is waiting for the fence to come down. In September, a new shop called muditā held its grand opening at 653 Laurel Street. Owner Nidhi Patel, a San Carlos resident, sells South Asian art and craft, most of it sourced directly from artisans in India. Pieces include pichwai paintings on silk, Warli fabric and Dhokra metalwork. She told the San Mateo Daily Journal what she is going for:
"I'm trying to bring items that people wouldn't have seen before. You can find pashminas at any store, but you're not going to find Warli fabric sourced from eastern India."
The Daily Journal reported that the opening weekend was Saturday and Sunday, September 12 and 13. Patel also told the paper she hopes the shop becomes a place where cultural history gets taught and shared, alongside the retail. A shop opening on Laurel Street during construction, two months before the street hosts Diwali Downtown, fits the way downtown has been running this year.
What the Park Returns in 2027, and What Stays Unscheduled
The street can stand in for much of what the park did, but not all of it. According to the city's Harrington Park FAQ, the finished park will have a multipurpose plaza for gatherings, public seating, a rain garden, a shaded grove of trees, memorial bricks, and a new building with restrooms, storage and mechanical space. The building will hold two public all-gender restrooms, one ADA-accessible with a universal changing station. The city says walkability, public restrooms, shade and gathering space were what residents asked for most in a three-year planning process. Adirondack chairs and a stage on Cherry Street can't supply any of those.
Some of the work is already done and won't be visible. In June, crews installed Silva Cells under the park. These underground structures give tree roots room to grow and capture and filter stormwater. The city expects the payoff to be bigger trees and more shade over time. The FAQ lists an engineer's estimate of $5 million and a construction contract of $5.2 million. It also sets aside a contingency of up to $1 million and roughly $1 million more for management, outreach, design and engineering during construction.
The park is only the first phase. The second is Centennial Plaza on the 700 block of Laurel Street, the block that's already closed to cars and that now hosts Downtown Games and the new informational boards. The City Council approved its final design on October 14, 2025. As of the September 2026 FAQ, the city says the 700 block construction will come next but still hasn't set a timeline for it. If you have questions about the current work, you can email [email protected] or call (650) 802-4310.
Downtown projects like this one change how a block feels to live near. They also change how the homes around it read to buyers, often before the fencing comes down. If you'd like to talk through what the Harrington Park and Centennial Plaza timeline could mean for a home near Laurel Street, Hummingbird Homes is glad to help. Contact Us.
