Sunset Dunes

Sunset Dunes is a long public urban park next to Ocean Beach on the West Side of San Francisco, California. The park is located on a former location of the Great Highway between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard. The park opened on April12, 2025, making it the largest pedestrianization project in California's history. The park converted 17 acres of roadway into separated walking and cycling paths with the coastal side for slower speeds and the inland side for faster speeds. The park has art installations, exercise equipment, log benches and hammocks.

History

The upper portion of the Great Highway between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard was closed to motor vehicles on certain days starting in April 2020 to provide San Franciscans space to social distance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Previously, the upper Great Highway would close around 27 times annually for sand and debris removal. In January 2022, The New York Times ranked the use of the Great Highway for biking and walking #18 out of "52 Places for a Changed World," chosen for ethical tourism features.

In 2024, a ballot measure known as Proposition K was proposed by San Francisco supervisors Joel Engardio and Myrna Melgar to permanently close the Upper Great Highway and repurpose the space as a new park. On November 9, 2024, Proposition K passed 55% to 45%.

The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department received a $1million grant from the California State Coastal Conservancy Board to help convert the upper Great Highway into a park including restoring coastal habitat. New transit infrastructure upgrades were conducted on the roads around the Great Highway to accommodate the additional traffic present from closing the upper Great Highway.

After being closed to car traffic on March 14th, the park opened on April12, 2025. At least 13,000 people visited the park on its opening day. Volunteers and city workers had helped to install benches, remove traffic lights, add wooden wayfinding signs to nearby local businesses, and add exercise equipment.

Since the park's official opening in April 2025, San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department has initiated a Community Engagement Process to gather stakeholder feedback on the interim improvements and ideas for the future of park space. The community engagement process, along with feasibility and technical studies, will support a Visioning and Planning Process, that was set to begin in 2026. This planning process was paid for in part by the state under a one million dollar Resiliency Grant to plan the future of the coastal park space.

In 2025, Heather Knight compared the fight over the conversion of a road to a park to the Embarcadero Freeway, the removal of the off-ramp from the Central Freeway in Hayes Valley and the fight to create JFK Promenade which all generated substantial backlash at the time. It quickly became the third most popular San Francisco park on weekdays behind JFK Promenade and Marina Green. In 2025, a skate park opened on Sunset Dunes and the LA Times included it on its list of 12 new things to do in San Francisco. A pirate-themed playground was opened in September 2026. These and other installations would have to be removed if Proposition G passes in November 2026, which would return cars to the road during the week.

Since the partial closure of the Great Highway, District 4 (which includes Sunset Dunes) Supervisor Joel Engardio was recalled from office due to his support for Proposition K, and his replacement Alan Wong has backed returning vehicular traffic to the Great Highway.

Traffic impacts Many residents of the Sunset and Richmond District oppose repurposing the roadway as a park due to concerns about traffic and travel times. KQED in 2026 cited SFMTA officials as saying traffic was below pre-pandemic levels in the Sunset District, and it has not negatively affected roadway safety in the neighborhood. The San Francisco Chronicle and The Frisc both analyzed city data and found no substantial increase in commute times, arguing that some commutes also became faster since its closure.

Attendance

The park has become among the city's most visited, especially among District 4 residents, with park officials estimating 1.7 million visitors per year as of 2026.

Name Before receiving its official name of Sunset Dunes, the park was referred to as Ocean Beach Park or Great Highway Park.

The park's name was selected following community engagement. The San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department initially received 4,200 name suggestions between March1 and 16, 2025. These name suggestions were narrowed down to 3,200 potential names by Recreation & Parks Department staff members to eliminate inappropriate names. After a community meeting attended by 240 participants, 15 potential names that ensured "historical significance, connection to nature and geography, and iconic placemaking" were selected from the 3,200. A citywide survey was held from March20 to April2 to choose a name from the 15 potential names. The five finalists of this survey were Sunset Dunes, Playland Park, Great Parkway, Fogline, and Plover Parkway. The San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission selected Sunset Dunes as the park's name from a group of five finalists on April9, 2025.

Wildlife

Wildlife that live in the park and nearby beach include coyotes, the Botta’s pocket gopher, coyotes, long-tailed weasels, seagulls, the endangered Western snowy plover, ospreys and red-tailed hawks among others.

Sunset Dunes

Bron en licentie