SF’s New Park on the Closed Great Highway Is Now Called Sunset Dunes

Updated 2:51 p.m. Wednesday

San Francisco’s newest park along the Upper Great Highway will be called Sunset Dunes after city officials chose from a list of five finalists Wednesday afternoon — just days before the park officially opens on Saturday.

Other names up for consideration by the Recreation and Parks Commission were Fog Line, Great Parkway, Playland Parkway and Plover Parkway. Other options floated by commissioners at the meeting included Reopen the Great Highway Park and Playland Park instead of Playland Parkway.

Among the eight members of the public who spoke at Wednesday’s meeting, both Sunset Dunes and Plover Parkway were popular options. But commissioners ultimately landed on Sunset Dunes at the nomination of president Kat Anderson, who said the name contained two of the three main themes identified by city staff.

“[That name] does a great job of honoring the neighborhood and hitting the two primary benefits of the area: the fact that you can enjoy the dunes and the sunset,” said public commenter Ben Davis, who leads the arts nonprofit Illuminate.

In order to land at those five choices to recommend to the commission, city staffers narrowed the field from over 4,000 submissions over the course of several stages since the beginning of March, outlined in a staff report filed Wednesday.

Many residents used the submission process to air their grievances against District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio, whose support for Proposition K to permanently close the section of the Great Highway to vehicles put him at odds with many people in his district. Among them were names like “Engardio’s Folly” and “Traitor Joel’s,” Mission Local reported.

Over 3,000 submissions remained even after weeding out unsavory ones that took aim at Engardio or those that could cause confusion with existing parks like Land’s End or Ocean Beach. Staffers identified top themes such as dunes, sunset and esplanade.

The top 15 contenders were then selected for a trial by survey. Thousands of residents voted on their favorites from the shortlist and graded them on a rubric based on historical significance, natural and geographical importance, community relevance, placemaking impact, and appropriateness and clarity.

“As the space enters its next chapter, it’s great that San Franciscans got to have a say in the park’s name,” said Heidi Moseson, vice president of the nonprofit Friends of Ocean Beach Park.

Not all residents are as excited about the park’s grand opening. Although voters passed Proposition K by a narrow margin in November, a majority of westside residents voted in opposition, with many opponents calling the road a necessary throughway for neighborhoods like the Sunset District.

Commissioner Larry Mazzola, a lifelong resident of the city’s westside, said Proposition K should never have gone to a citywide vote. During the meeting, he jokingly suggested the name Reopen the Great Highway Park.

“I go into this vote today not feeling excited or proud. Instead, I feel pressured to name something I never wanted in the first place,” he said. “And a supermajority of the westside feels the same way I do.”

Since the section of the highway closed on March 14, the park has been vandalized multiple times with graffiti — and, like the name suggestions, many of the tags called out Engardio specifically.

The anger toward the supervisor by his own constituents boiled over into a recall campaign launched against him shortly after the November election. Others also unsuccessfully filed a lawsuit to block the highway closure.

Despite legal and cultural backlash to the project, the park is expected to have a grand opening Saturday under its new name. City staff compared the undertaking to the removal of the Embarcadero Freeway more than 30 years ago.

“In 10, 20 years, everybody will be like, ‘I’m glad that that commission did that, I’m glad that that vote did that, I’m glad that that happened,’” said Commissioner Sonya Clark-Herrera.