San Francisco’s New Ocean Beach Park on Track for Spring Debut

Months after San Franciscans voted to turn part of the Great Highway into oceanfront recreational space, Ocean Beach Park is on track to debut this spring, organizers and city officials said Friday.

With the road permanently closed to vehicles, the city has already made traffic improvements meant to speed up alternate travel north and south from Lake Merced to Golden Gate Park and make the infrastructure around the Great Highway more pedestrian-friendly, according to Proposition K organizers and the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department.

“These improvements lay the groundwork for the transformation of the Great Highway into an oceanfront park, creating a new recreational space while keeping the area navigable for all,” a city spokesperson said in a statement.

In November, San Francisco voters approved repurposing the Great Highway, a longtime commuter corridor for the city’s west side that became a beloved outdoor recreation space for the whole city during the COVID-19 pandemic when it was temporarily closed to vehicle traffic. For the last few years, that closure was limited to weekends, welcoming walkers, rollerbladers and bicyclists to cruise along Ocean Beach.

The measure to permanently make the Great Highway for pedestrians only from Lincoln Way to Sloat Boulevard seven days a week drew opposition from many west side residents who said traffic would be worse between Ingleside, the Sunset and the Richmond. This month, a group officially launched its recall campaign against Supervisor Joel Engardio over his support for the measure.

In preparation for opening the park that Proposition K supporters envision, city staff prioritized previously planned improvements to Sunset Boulevard — another key commuter road that spans the west side.

“With the Prop. K results, the city made sure [those improvements] got done before Prop. K was implemented,” said Lucas Lux, one of the organizers of the Yes on Prop. K campaign. “This is just a case of coordinating city actions well so that Sunset Boulevard was nice and smooth before folks needed to start using that for their north-south commute.

The Department of Public Works has repaved 44 blocks of the road, and Muni’s 29–Sunset bus route will now stop after passing through intersections instead of before, alleviating a build-up of cars waiting to turn right off the road.

Moving the stops after the intersection, Lux said, will speed up north and south travel while having a minimal impact on those turning right onto Sunset.

“It’s a north-south thoroughfare, so that is the priority traffic, but I would keep in mind, if … you’re turning right onto Sunset Boulevard, you have a signal there, so you can turn into the second lane if you needed to,” he told KQED. “I don’t think that that will create much of an issue for those folks because there’s not a significant amount of traffic turning onto Sunset Boulevard during those signals.”

New bus stop benches are being installed, and intersections’ drainage systems have been improved.

The $7.5 million project was already part of the city’s budget for infrastructure improvements, Lux said.

The city is also putting traffic signals at key intersections in the Outer Sunset.

Stop signs at 41st Avenue and Lincoln Boulevard have been replaced by a light, and another is set to go live at Sloat and Skyline boulevards on Wednesday. Caltrans installed a traffic signal at the intersection of the Great Highway and Skyline — which previously had no signal control — to improve traffic flow and safety, according to the city’s press release.

“We are responding to these changes by taking action now, including installing new traffic signals to prepare the streets well ahead of the shift to a new park,” San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency streets director Viktoriya Wise said in a statement. “Our priority is to keep people moving safely and efficiently as these changes take effect, whether they are walking, biking, or driving.”

Lux said the next steps for Ocean Beach Park supporters is to get started on delivering a permanent park.

“This is a bit of a cart and a horse challenge where people don’t fund things that aren’t created or that there’s no voter mandate for, so now that there is a voter mandate for Proposition K, there’s actually been a few sources of funding rolling in already,” he told KQED.

The project has a $1 million park planning grant from the California State Coastal Conservancy, which was awarded to the Rec and Park Department, as well as a regional Metropolitan Transportation Commission award for more traffic updates. Private donors are also working with the city to install temporary art.

Lux said he wasn’t able to provide a total budget estimate for the park renovations but that it would depend on the planning period.

“The city is making the west side infrastructure ready for a park,” Lux said. “They’ve done that work, and what’s to come is now the really fun part, which is transitioning this special part of our coast to a park space that San Franciscans can enjoy on a daily basis.”