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District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong announced on Friday that he plans to sign on to a 2026 ballot measure that would let San Franciscans decide on the future of the Great Highway for the second time in a year.
After weeks in office, Wong said he found “a majority of Sunset residents who support reopening the Great Highway to cars on weekdays,” making the announcement the same day he filed paperwork to run for the District 4 seat, which will face a special election in June next year.
Wong is “prepared” to be one of the four supervisors needed to sponsor the ballot measure, which would be introduced next year, if at all. The ballot measure would be a “compromise,” Wong said, to bring cars back on the road during the week and keep it car-free on the weekends.
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It is unlikely to pass.
Sunset Dunes, the oceanfront park on the former highway, was created following the passage of Proposition K in November 2024. The measure passed easily by a 55-45 tilt, but nearly two-thirds of District 4 voters were against it.
This sparked the recall of District 4 supervisor Joel Engardio, who championed Prop. K. In September 2025, a nearly identical ratio of District 4 voters opted to recall Engardio.
Wong called supporters and opponents of Sunset Dunes and let them know his decision before his announcement. He said he spent three weeks meeting with Sunset residents “across the political spectrum.”
One key person did not receive a call.
Connie Chan, the District 1 supervisor who first floated the idea of the ballot measure to bring cars back, had not heard from Wong’s office about his support before the announcement, according to her office.
“Supervisor Chan still supports the compromise,” said Robyn Burke, Chan’s legislative aide. “But we were not made aware of what Supervisor Wong’s proposals were and haven’t been reached out to.”
The likely doomed measure will facilitate Chan’s hopes for higher office: Chan is running for Congress in 2026 to take Pelosi’s seat, and that race and the Great Highway initiative would be on the same ballot. If the measure were to bring out Westside Chinese voters to the booths, Chan’s campaign would benefit.
At the same time, the labor interests backing Chan are cool on a Great Highway measure, as they feel it will bring out voters who could likely be hostile to the CEO tax and other labor-backed revenue measures.
Lucas Lux, president of Friends of Sunset Dunes and an opponent of the measure, got the call on Friday morning that Wong plans to support the ballot initiative, Lux said.
Before Wong was appointed, he told Lux that he would host neighborhood forums to inform his decision. But then Wong “said on the phone that his office didn’t have capacity to organize an open process itself,” Lux said.
“We are deeply disappointed with Supervisor Wong,” Lux wrote in a statement. “We believed that he was serious when he said he wanted to help restore trust after a divisive few years in the Sunset. Instead, he’s doing the opposite: claiming he’d listen to constituents while actively turning his back on them.”
A town hall on the future of Sunset Dunes, organized by the pro-park nonprofit, was slated to take place on Jan. 7. Over 200 people have registered to attend, according to the Friends of Sunset Dunes.
The nonprofit said it will “do everything we can to protect the park we love.”
Wong had discussed the Great Highway in private meetings with people including Lux, Vin Budhai, one of the plaintiffs of a lawsuit that claims that its closure was unlawful and at a public meeting organized by the political group ConnectedSF.
Budhai, who called Wong the day before his appointment and met with him again two weeks ago, caught him up to speed on the Great Highway lawsuit, which is slated to have a hearing in early January.
“I commend him for listening to everyone,” Budhai said. “He met people from both sides. He did the right thing.”
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