San Francisco voters just approved the largest pedestrian project in California’s history. Passage of Proposition K expresses residents’ desire to increase park access in the city’s Outer Sunset district, to proactively respond to local coastal erosion and climate change, and to support smoother North-South traffic circulation in the Richmond and Sunset districts. SPUR co-sponsored the measure with Abundance Network and Friends of Great Highway Park, a neighborhood organization led by residents of the Outer Sunset district. Prop. K represents the evolution of SPUR’s thinking about the community service possibilities of the Upper Great Highway, where 12 years ago we envisioned changes to address coastal erosion and imperiled infrastructure in our Ocean Beach Master Plan (OMBP).
The Pandemic-Era Story of the Great Highway Closure
Most San Franciscans think of the Great Highway closure as a five-year journey that began with the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020, a mayoral emergency order closed the stretch from Lincoln Way to Sloat Boulevard to allow for safe, socially distanced recreation. In August 2021, the road closure was adjusted to weekends only. A 2022 ballot proposition (Prop. I) called for full-time use of the Great Highway for private vehicles, but 65% of San Francisco voters rejected the measure, which SPUR opposed. The passage of Prop. K, which was placed on the ballot by supervisors Engardio (District 4) and Melgar (District 7) with support from Mayor London Breed, means that this stretch of road will close to cars seven days a week beginning in early 2025.
Relatedly, in May 2024, the Board of Supervisors approved a permanent closure of the eroding Great Highway Extension —a separate section of road south of Sloat Boulevard — to cars and a rerouting of motorist traffic behind the San Francisco Zoo, a key element of the Ocean Beach Master Plan.
The Bigger-Picture Story of the Great Highway Closure
The Great Highway closure was initially envisioned in large part as a measure to address climate change impacts. A decade before the pandemic, in 2010, SPUR convened an interagency and community planning process to consider the future of Ocean Beach’s infrastructure, natural features, and recreational spaces in the context of severe erosion and sea level rise. At the time, the city relied on emergency armoring, placing boulder revetments on the beach, but in 2011, the Coastal Commission declined to approve the revetments, leaving the city out of compliance with the Coastal Act. In May 2012, SPUR published the Ocean Beach Master Plan, offering a way to address sea level rise, protect city infrastructure, restore coastal ecosystems, and improve public access to the coast. The plan recommended six key moves:
- Reroute the Great Highway behind the zoo via Sloat and Skyline boulevards (a measure the Board of Supervisors undertook in May 2024).
- Introduce a multipurpose coastal protection/restoration/access system (a measure Prop. I would have undermined).
- Reduce the width of the Great Highway to provide amenities and ease managed retreat.
- Restore the dunes along the middle reach.
- Create a better connection between Golden Gate Park and Ocean Beach.
- Introduce bicycle and pedestrian improvements north of Balboa Street (completed in 2014).
This plan — the first major climate adaptation plan in San Francisco, published in 2012 — embraced the idea of managed retreat, with major parts of the Great Highway closed to provide a park, protect critical infrastructure, and restore habitat. Although the plan began as a vision document, its broad-based support made it the foundation for amendments to San Francisco’s Local Coastal Program, which updated city coastal policies for climate adaptation.
A series of implementation studies followed. In 2015, a significant SPUR-led engineering study validated the Ocean Beach Master Plan’s approach to coastal management — managed retreat, beach nourishment, and construction of low-profile protection structures. That winter’s huge storms illustrated erosion issues that, left unaddressed, could rupture the Lake Merced Tunnel, a key piece of wastewater infrastructure that protects coastal water quality. Indeed, one of the reasons SPUR opposed Prop. I in 2022 was because the measure would have prevented the city from advancing a carefully balanced strategy to protect nearby sewer infrastructure and community resources from flooding.
To prime the OMBP for implementation, SPUR led studies presenting open-space design concepts and analyzing traffic patterns at Ocean Beach. In the ensuing years, the SFPUC conducted internal engineering and design studies and led other city agencies to define a multi-benefit project based on the OBMP. This project was the subject of an environmental impact report approved by the Board of Supervisors in 2023.
How SPUR’s Thinking About the Upper Great Highway Has Changed
The OBMP’s objective was to envision the future of coastal infrastructure given inevitable and accelerating coastal erosion. The plan most urgently sought to address the stretch of infrastructure that sits along the Great Highway Extension south of Sloat Boulevard, where a wastewater treatment plant is stressed by climate-induced structural issues. SPUR and our partners did not know when the Great Highway Extension would close to cars to address this issue, which meant we did not know when the road closure south of Sloat would necessarily impact traffic patterns.
Then a global pandemic prompted the emergency street closures that allowed San Francisco to create a safe outdoor recreation space for residents. For SPUR, this unforeseen circumstance fundamentally changed the realm of the possible for the Upper Great Highway. Its closure had a neutral impact on traffic congestion and an overwhelmingly positive impact on coastal access. Therefore, when we realized that closure of the Great Highway Extension (a decade-plus SPUR effort) could coincide with creation of a new permanent park immediately adjacent to it at the Upper Great Highway, we jumped on the opportunity to support a more comprehensive and transformative vision for these additional two miles of San Francisco’s Pacific coastline.
Our movement from exploring a partial closure to supporting a full closure reflects our longtime priorities: promoting safe, non-car transportation options; improving coastal access and climate resiliency; and increasing the number and quality of public parks in San Francisco. It also reflects our belief that as the range of policies that are politically possible changes in San Francisco, so too should our pragmatic ambition for a more sustainable, prosperous, and equitable city.
What’s Next for the Upper Great Highway?
San Francisco now has a clear mandate from voters to close the Upper Great Highway to private automobiles. Moreover, the California Coastal Commission, which has jurisdiction over coastal access, has just approved the city’s permit to permanently close the Upper Great Highway to vehicles. Now the city must start the process to make these two miles of sand and asphalt a world-class oceanfront promenade.
In 2025, the Board of Supervisors will need to introduce and pass legislation making all necessary conforming amendments to the city’s General Plan, as mandated by Prop. K. Improvements for drivers taking the new North-South route are already underway and will be completed by city agencies before the highway is fully closed. These improvements include repaving Sunset Boulevard, activating traffic signals at the Sloat/Skyline and Skyline/Great Highway intersections, and making traffic changes to the Great Highway promenade intersections at the north and south ends of the new park.
Once all approvals are finalized by the Coastal Commission and the Board of Supervisors, Prop. K dictates that the road will automatically be closed to cars, and North-South traffic between the Richmond District and Daly City will be routed south of Golden Gate Park to Sunset Boulevard and behind the zoo.
Next spring, the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department will facilitate discussions with park designers, transportation professionals, community leaders in the Sunset and Richmond districts, and interested San Francisco residents. The goals of these meetings are to gather feedback on near-term improvements and to surface any emerging concerns about neighborhood traffic patterns.
The initial phase of the promenade work will include year-round programming for visitors of all ages and abilities and temporary art installations, permanent murals, seating, trash and recycling receptacles, water fountains, and signage. Additionally, the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department will begin dune restoration to improve natural conditions and mitigate future sand displacement and erosion, while enhancing the coast’s resilience to sea level rise. SPUR’s original Ocean Beach Master Plan recommended all these activities.
After the two-mile stretch re-opens as a full-time promenade, the city will install new traffic signals along the Lincoln Way corridor at La Playa Street, 41st Avenue, and 45th Avenue, as well as upgrade the existing signal at the Great Highway and Lincoln to support safety and mobility.
What’s Next for the Ocean Beach Master Plan?
On November 13, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission brought its Ocean Beach Climate Adaptation Project to the California Coastal Commission for a Coastal Development permit. The application was controversial: Some environmental activists were concerned about the amount of armoring in the proposal (despite it having always been a part of the OBMP). Some felt that the city should commit to moving the entire multi-billion-dollar wastewater system away from the coast but identified neither sites nor funding. With significant last-minute modifications reflecting advocate and staff concerns, the project is permitted for a limited duration of 25 years. It includes robust monitoring and reporting provisions reflecting the new best practice of adaptive coastal management as sea levels rise.
Despite sharing some of the critics’ concerns, Coastal Commission members unanimously approved the permit. They cited the extensive analysis and study underlying the proposal, the urgency of action, and the lack of better approaches to the challenges of sea level rise and erosion. The project will execute on the key concepts of the OBMP and achieves a range of public and environmental benefits:
- It cleans up and uncovers the beach, removing decades-old boulder revetments and large quantities of exposed fill, long the top priority of coastal advocates and commission staff.
- It provides a spectacular new coastal open space for the people of California, closing a gap in the California Coastal Trail and safely connecting Land's End to Lake Merced and Fort Funston for the first time.
- It creates new user amenities, including coastal parking and restrooms (both identified as major community priorities).
- It preserves critical infrastructure that protects coastal water quality and keeps San Francisco in compliance with the Clean Water Act.
- It replaces eroded and degraded pavement with a dynamic dune landscape and native plant communities.
Importantly, the project explicitly acknowledges that it is neither intended to be nor has regulatory approval to be a permanent response to climate change — it is only the next phase in the long-term management of California’s dynamic coastline.
Fifteen years ago, SPUR began grappling with the seemingly intractable problem of a beachfront and infrastructure under siege. Twelve years ago, we stood with the affected residents and responsible agencies to articulate a vision for managed retreat and community benefit. Today we begin to realize the resilient public coastline San Francisco deserves.
Read the Ocean Beach Master Plan
* About the Authors
Annie Fryman is director of special projects at SPUR, focusing on housing and transportation advocacy in San Francisco.
Benjamin Grant is senior planner at SiteLab. Formerly, he led the Ocean Beach Master Plan initiative as SPUR's urban design policy director.