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Residents of the Bay Area are expressing frustration over the decision to transform a historically significant racetrack into an expansive waterfront park, especially given the ongoing housing crisis and the project’s reliance on taxpayer funds.
The 161-acre site of Golden Gate Fields, located along the San Francisco Bay, has been slated for a $175 million acquisition by the nonprofit Trust for Public Land, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Having ceased thoroughbred racing operations in 2024 after nearly eight decades, the former racetrack’s redevelopment has been complicated by its location, which straddles the boundaries of Berkeley and Albany. The nonprofit organization played a key role in brokering an agreement between the landowner and these two municipalities.
The organization has committed to securing the necessary funding for the purchase, with plans to transfer ownership to the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) next year for ongoing maintenance, a move they have hailed as a successful collaboration.
Funding for the acquisition will also draw from California’s Prop 4, passed in 2024, which allocates $10 million in bonds for projects aimed at enhancing climate resilience, including the expansion of recreational opportunities in local parks and the refurbishment of state parks.
Several Bay Area residents are not thrilled and have taken to social media to slam the idea, saying the last thing they need is another recreational space.
“Here’s a better idea: replace this shuttered 160-acre racetrack with 50 acres of ultra-high-density development, and build a park on the remaining 110 acres,” one person wrote.
“This will meet Albany’s housing element 50 times over while helping fund the new park (and burying the highway).”
“So it looks like CA taxpayers will be shelling out the big bucks to ‘protect’ 160 acres of land on the border of Berkeley and Albany from any housing development,” a law professor at UC Davis wrote. “Wouldn’t a new waterfront park have more value if more people could live beside it?”
“We are addicted to ideology and luxury beliefs. There is no shortage of parks and recreational space,” a third person continued. “We have a shortage of housing in the Bay Area, but we would rather do everything else than build homes.”
“This is a DISGRACE. Here we are in the middle of a massive housing shortage, our kids are leaving California in droves to find an affordable place to live, and we turn this prime housing site over to another park?” a fourth person wrote on Facebook, pointing out the proximity of numerous parks nearby. “WE DO NOT NEED MORE PARKS, WE NEED MORE HOMES!”
However, not everyone agrees. One resident threw their support behind it online, saying that turning the area into one “giant waterfront park is gonna be sick.”
Elizabeth Echols, EBRPD board member for Ward 1, said in a statement on the park’s website that the “opportunity to convert Golden Gate Fields to a fabulous shoreline park serving East Bay residents and the broader Bay Area community is a dream come true for the East Bay Regional Park District Board of Directors.”
“If the acquisition is successful, 161 acres of beautiful shoreline will forever be preserved for parkland for all to enjoy.”
Echols added, “Not only that, restoring the land to a more natural state will go a long way to protecting sensitive shoreline habitat not only for wildlife but also as a means to protect coastal residential communities from the impacts of our changing climate.”
As part of the purchase option, the land must not contain any above-ground infrastructure when it is handed over, the outlet noted.
Guillermo Rodriguez, California state director for the trust, said that they were “still early in the process” and that they “will be engaging community members and stakeholders across” the region for support.
The California Post reached out to East Bay Regional Park District and the nonprofit for comment.