San Francisco voters will, in all likelihood, once again weigh in on the Great Highway at the polls.
A petition to reopen a section of the former coastal road to cars has garnered at least 15,626 signatures, according to its organizers, more than enough to qualify for the November ballot.
Organizers with Great Highway for Everyone turned in boxes of signed petitions to the city on Monday. The Department of Elections now has 30 days to verify the signatures and, if substantiated, the Great Highway for Everyone Act will face a citywide vote on Nov. 3.
Right before filing the signatures, proponents of the measure, including Richard Correia, Albert Chow, District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong and grassroots volunteers, stood outside of the Department of Elections in City Hall.
Wong said it’s the most “contentious” issue in his neighborhood, and that the rest of the city did not realize its importance to the Westside when it was last at the ballot box in 2024.
Then, San Franciscans voted 55 to 45 to remove cars from part of the Great Highway, turning it into Sunset Dunes Park. The new ballot measure seeks to reverse that change, opening the highway to car traffic again on weekdays, and keeping Sunset Dunes Park open only on weekends.
The measure’s backers, who include District 4 supervisor Alan Wong, call that a “compromise.”
The intense park v. highway battle — which highway supporters have repeatedly lost — has refused to go away, playing out in court, neighborhood divisions, and Wong’s failed attempt to legislatively get the issue on the ballot in the June election.
Albert Chow, a small-business owner who ran in the District 4 primary against Wong and still plans to run in November, has doggedly led efforts against the park since its inception. He said he personally gathered several hundred signatures to get the measure on the November ballot.
“We’re seeking a fair balance between having fun, but also the real, everyday need to get to work, to do chores, take kids to school, take parents to the hospital, to see family, to shop, to all the things that are just necessary in life,” Chow said of the measure.
Chow said the campaign verified many of the 15,626 signatures along the way, and is confident that it can clear the 10,582 signature requirement — about 2 percent of city voters — “handily.”
A pro-park group is hoping to stop the effort, however: It filed a lawsuit last week alleging that the petition includes several “false or misleading statements.”
“San Franciscans have already made it clear that they love Sunset Dunes, and that they won’t let this vocal minority destroy it,” said Lucas Lux of Friends of Sunset Dunes, the group behind the lawsuit. “We’re ready for one last fight to defend the park.”
Jim Ross, a political consultant, said it will be challenging for the Great Highway for Everyone; the park already exists, and they are asking to remove what many see as an amenity.
“They have a really challenging path ahead of them to get this measure passed,” Ross said. “I think that they have to convince the rest of the city to shut down a park, which is very difficult.”
The campaign will need to rally the entire Westside, maximizing the Sunset and Richmond votes, Ross said. Ross said that the lawsuit also “muddies” the clear and direct messaging that passing this measure would need.
The park has become a popular destination, and the city has invested in it, installing a number of public art works and other amenities, like hammocks and a skate park. In the two years since voters first made the promenade a permanent park, it’s seen an average of 4,900 people each day.
Ross said that no matter which direction the measure goes, it won’t be the last San Francisco hears about the Great Highway. He likened it to the 1990s battles over the Central Freeway, which went to the ballot three times and took a decade to resolve.
“It has a political potency,” Ross said, and “probably won’t go away anytime soon.”
