Golden Gate Fields

San Francisco | California

What We’re Doing
Partnering on a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create a bayside public park and bolster regional climate resilience

Our Goal
Expand shoreline access, restore vital ecosystems, and create a place where hundreds of thousands of residents can connect with the outdoors.

Support Our Work in California

Aerial view of a racetrack and grandstands near a body of water with city buildings visible in the distant background under a clear blue sky.

Golden Gate Fields by the Numbers

161

acres reimagined for regional benefit

opportunity to create a resilient coastline the Bay Area needs for the future

A New Future for Golden Gate Fields

For nearly a century, Golden Gate Fields has been a storied landmark of the Bay Area. Few places offer what it does now: a chance to create a world-class park where hundreds of thousands of residents can connect with the outdoors, with new recreational amenities, an improved Bay Trail, and restored habitat along a shoreline that belongs to everyone.

Trust for Public Land is partnering with the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) on a once-in-a-generation opportunity to transform the 161-acre Golden Gate Fields waterfront into a future public park along the San Francisco Bay. The site, a former horse racing track that closed in 2024, sits on a prominent stretch of East Bay shoreline and represents one of the largest remaining opportunities to expand public access to nature’s benefits. Working with a broad group of public and community partners, TPL and the EBRPD aim to secure a future where hundreds of thousands of residents can connect with the outdoors while restoring a vital Bay Area ecosystem.

Climate Benefits: Bay Area communities are on the front lines of a changing climate, experiencing flooding, sea level rise, and heatwaves in real time. The transformation at Golden Gate Fields would help protect surrounding communities through nature-based solutions by transforming a barren stretch of horse racing facilities and acres of parking lot into a public park with restored wetlands and climate-smart shoreline infrastructure that can shield nearby neighborhoods from disasters. Protecting and restoring the shoreline would also create vital habitat for wildlife and ultimately contribute to the kind of resilient coastline the Bay Area needs for the future.

Connectivity and Recreation: Golden Gate Fields is a missing link with the potential to create a contiguous stretch of over 500 acres of public open space and Bay shoreline. The project would link Albany Beach, the 8.5-mile McLaughlin Eastshore State Park, Point Isabel Regional Shoreline, Albany Bulb, Cesar Chavez Park, and the Brooks Island Regional Preserve into one unbroken system of parks and open space accessible to all.

The Final Race is On: Before becoming a famous racetrack with sweeping Bay Area views, the site spent centuries as a wetland, served as a cattle transfer point in the 1850s, weathered two explosions as the site of a dynamite factory (1879–1892), and was commandeered by the Navy in WWII as a landing craft depot. Declining interest in horse racing, pressure from animal welfare activists, and the financial strain of the 2020 COVID shutdown ultimately led to its closure. Now, TPL, EBRPD, and partners are fundraising to acquire the storied property. If the deal crosses the finish line, transforming Golden Gate Fields into a public park would cap a remarkable history — and open an entirely new chapter for the Bay Area shoreline.

Protecting land and creating parks at this scale takes time and deep collaboration. TPL and partners are early in the process, raising the funds to make this ambitious project happen, and engaging community members and stakeholders across the region in supporting this essential missing link in an interconnected shoreline park system.

Additional updates on the project and opportunities for public engagement will be shared as the process moves forward.

About This Project

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Get in Touch With Our California Team

Los Angeles Office

135 West Green Street
2nd Floor
Pasadena, CA, 91105
(323) 223-0441
[email protected]

Sacramento Office

1107 9th Street
Suite 810
Sacramento, CA, 95814
(916) 557-1673
[email protected]

San Francisco Office

23 Geary Street
Suite 1000
San Francisco, CA, 94108
(415) 495-4014
[email protected]

Guillermo Rodriguez

Vice President Pacific Region, California State Director

[email protected]