Two proposed development projects threaten Western Golden Gate Park

Two projects are proposed for the western end of Golden Gate Park that are inconsistent with the design integrity and purpose of the park. The 1998 GGP Master Plan designates the west end of the park as relatively bucolic, with meadows and forests that serve as a refuge from urban stress for both people and wildlife. However, the Beach Chalet Soccer Fields artificial turf and sports lighting renovation project will remove a meadow, replacing over 7 acres of natural grass with plastic grass, gravel and tire waste infill, and installing 10 banks of 60 foot tall, multi-fixture stadium lights. These lights are twice as tall as the trees that screen the fields from Ocean Beach. The lights will be turned on from sunset until 10:00 p.m. every night of the year. There will be additional new concrete and asphalt paving and other built features added to what is now naturalistic parkland.

In addition, the proposed nearby Westside Water Treatment Plant would take over 2 acres of parkland with a 40,000 square foot, 30 foot tall, concrete building and a chemical building, located within a few hundred feet of the restored Millwright's house, Murphy windmill, and the soccer fields. Between the two projects, over 250 trees which form the park's protective western windbreak, will either be removed or threatened with construction.

Both projects are currently undergoing an environmental review process. Local groups are working to inform the public of these projects. SF Ocean Edge is working to renovate the soccer fields with natural grass and no sports lights, and to reallocate the $12 million funding to renovate other playing fields in San Francisco. The Golden Gate Park Preservation Alliance is working to relocate the water treatment factory outside of the park. Both groups would like to see plans for the western edge of Golden Gate Park that will both protect and enhance Golden Gate Park's parkland.

Please contact those groups for more information: www.sfoceanedge.org or www.goldengateparkpreservation.org