Measure G: Allowing Private Vehicles on the Great Highway in Sunset Dunes Park

Reopens the Upper Great Highway to vehicles on weekdays while maintaining recreational use on weekends and holidays, creating a compromise between transportation access and the recreational use established after the roadway's permanent closure. CADC supports Prop. G as a balanced approach that preserves the corridor for recreation while restoring weekday transportation access for working families, seniors, people with disabilities and others who rely on vehicles. The committee viewed the measure as allowing San Francisco to share the corridor rather than forcing an all-road or all-park choice.

CADC 認為平日恢復行車、週末及假日保留康樂用途，是兼顧上班家庭、長者、殘障人士交通需要及市民休閒空間的共享折衷方案，因此支持提案 G。

Source (https://www.sfcadc.org/11_2026_propositions)

Westside families were promised a compromise and got a road closure. Prop G restores weekday vehicle access to the Upper Great Highway while preserving weekend recreation. Vote YES.

Source (https://sfgop.org/nov-2026-endorsements)

Prop G - Great Highway Compromise

What it does: Opens the Upper Great Highway to vehicles during the week and closes it for recreation on weekends and holidays.

Endorsement: HECK YES!

This is the compromise that works for all and what good governance looks like. In 2024, Prop K trampled the Upper Great Highway Compromise and turned this highway into a closed road. The people most impacted (neighbors, commuters) voted overwhelmingly against closing the road. (https://electionmapsf.com/2024-11-05/prop-k) Prop G is the return to the compromise that makes sense: cars back on weekdays; recreation on weekends and holidays.

The closure pushed cars onto 19th Avenue, Sunset Boulevard, and residential streets. Weekend recreation is real. Weekday commuting is also real. And people who live west of 19th are not extras in someone else’s postcard.

There is no funding source for the park they promised, which (based on cost of India Basin & Bayview parks) would cost a whopping $200M. (Did we mention the obvious? Golden Gate Park is right across the street!). Even SFCTA warned that closing the road was more expensive than keeping the road open.  In 2024, for Prop K, the Controller greatly underestimated ongoing park expenses,  even claiming “savings” that never materialized (costs have increased), and the cost of sand removal and other roadway maintenance has materially increased since the Highway closure.

At this point, the Controller says it will cost $9.8 million to re-open the Great Highway to cars during the week; 90% of which are one-time expenses (e.g. restoring traffic signals hastily removed immediately after closure). Future roadway maintenance costs are predicted to be less than current costs to keep the road clear for recreation; and there will be additional cost savings from reduced staffing demands for the park on weekdays. So, you do the math, which is more fiscally responsible?

There are, indeed, costs to running a functional city. The cost of being dysfunctional is much higher.

Vote YES. The cyclists have been saying it since the late 1980s: Share the Road. Ideology can take a hike here (but only on the weekends!)

Source (https://www.connectedsf.com/2026-voter-guide#prop-g)

What it does: Opens the Upper Great Highway to vehicles during the week and closes it for recreation on weekends and holidays.

Endorsement: HECK YES!

This is the compromise that works for all and what good governance looks like. In 2024, Prop K trampled the Upper Great Highway Compromise and turned this highway into a closed road. The people most impacted (neighbors, commuters) voted overwhelmingly against closing the road. Prop G is the return to the compromise that makes sense: cars back on weekdays; recreation on weekends and holidays.

The closure pushed cars onto 19th Avenue, Sunset Boulevard, and residential streets. Weekend recreation is real. Weekday commuting is also real. And people who live west of 19th are not extras in someone else’s postcard.

There is no funding source for the park they promised, which (based on cost of India Basin & Bayview parks) would cost a whopping $200M. (Did we mention the obvious? Golden Gate Park is right across the street!). Even SFCTA warned that closing the road was more expensive than keeping the road open. In 2024, for Prop K, the Controller greatly underestimated ongoing park expenses, even claiming “savings” that never materialized (costs have increased), and the cost of sand removal and other roadway maintenance has materially increased since the Highway closure.

At this point, the Controller says it will cost $9.8 million to re-open the Great Highway to cars during the week; 90% of which are one-time expenses (e.g. restoring traffic signals hastily removed immediately after closure). Future roadway maintenance costs are predicted to be less than current costs to keep the road clear for recreation; and there will be additional cost savings from reduced staffing demands for the park on weekdays. So, you do the math, which is more fiscally responsible?

There are, indeed, costs to running a functional city. The cost of being dys functional is much higher.

Vote YES . The cyclists have been saying it since the late 1980s: Share the Road. Ideology can take a hike here (but only on the weekends!)

San Francisco has voted on this twice. In 2022, we rejected a measure to keep cars on the Great Highway, 65% to 35% (https://www.sfelections.org/results/20221108/data/20221201/N2022_CertificationLetter.pdf). In 2024, we passed Prop K (https://sfelections.org/results/20241105/), 55% to 45%, and built Sunset Dunes. The park is a hit: 1.7 million visits in its first year (https://sfrecpark.org/m/newsflash/home/detail/2811), more than half of them on weekdays (the very days Prop G would give back to cars).

Prop G asks the whole city to vote on the same question a third time, and it would not be the last. It writes a weekday-and-weekend schedule into law that only voters can change (https://growsf.org/voter-guide/san-francisco-voter-guide-november-2026-election/measures/prop-g/legal-text/#prop-g-amendment): the Board of Supervisors could amend technical details with eight votes, but it couldn't move the Friday closing back to noon, where the old compromise had it. A schedule like that should be the Board's to adjust as conditions change. Instead, every tweak would mean another citywide election. Getting Prop G on the ballot took only about 10,600 signatures, 2% of registered voters. Prop D (https://growsf.org/voter-guide/san-francisco-voter-guide-november-2026-election/measures/prop-d/) would raise that bar to 8%, so a small group can't keep putting a settled question back on your ballot.

Vote no on Prop G. Let's all move on.

Source (https://growsf.org/voter-guide/san-francisco-voter-guide-november-2026-election#prop-g)

SPUR's Recommendation

Prop. G would undo a successful city effort to protect neighborhoods from the threats of rising sea levels and coastal erosion and create more places for San Franciscans to recreate safely and connect with nature. It would delay the city’s plan for addressing climate impacts at a time when the effects of climate change are only increasing. SPUR supports policies that expand access to shared public amenities, encourage transportation options such as walking, biking, and transit, and proactively address sea level rise and coastal erosion. Prop. G would do the opposite.

What Prop. G Would Do

Proposition G would allow private vehicles to use the Upper Great Highway (between Lincoln Way and Sloat Boulevard), currently a park known as Sunset Dunes, at all times except from 6 p.m. on Friday to 4 a.m. Monday and on holidays. The measure reverses 2024’s Prop. K, which established Sunset Dunes as a permanent recreational open space and closed it to private vehicles. If this measure passes, the city would need a Coastal Commission permit, and possibly other agency approvals, to reopen the roadway to cars.

The Backstory

For more than two decades, coastal erosion has caused frequent closures of the Upper Great Highway along San Francisco’s Pacific coast. Emergency declarations led to armoring the area with boulder revetments and closed the highway’s southbound lane for a year in 2009–2010. These and other climate-related impacts on the city’s western shore inspired SPUR to launch a multi-agency public process in 2010 to address sea level rise, protect city infrastructure, restore coastal ecosystems, and improve public access to the Ocean Beach coastline, with support from the National Park Service, SF Public Utilities Commission, and the State Coastal Conservancy.

In May 2012, SPUR published the resulting Ocean Beach Master Plan, which called for many transportation and infrastructure changes to the Upper Great Highway and Great Highway Extension. Among them was a recommendation to transform the Upper Great Highway into car-free space for public recreation along the coastline.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been experimentation, progress, and controversy regarding use of this two-mile coastal stretch:

• Spring 2020: Under the COVID-19 mayoral emergency order, the Great Highway was closed to car traffic to allow for safe, socially distanced recreation.
• August 2021: The emergency order was adjusted to close the promenade to vehicles on weekends, from Friday at noon until Monday at 6 a.m.
• November 2022: Two-thirds (65%) of San Francisco voters rejected Proposition I, which called for full-time private vehicle use of the Great Highway. SPUR opposed the measure because, among other reasons, it would interfere with the successful execution of the Ocean Beach Master Plan for climate adaptation.
• December 2022: The Board of Supervisors enacted a formal pilot program instructing the SF Recreation and Parks Department to use the Great Highway as a weekend promenade until December 31, 2025, and required the SF Municipal Transportation Agency and Rec and Park to study the pilot’s impacts and report on long-term recommendations.
• May 2024: The Board of Supervisors approved closing the Great Highway Extension (south of Sloat) to cars and rerouting traffic behind the zoo — SPUR’s first recommendation in the Ocean Beach Master Plan.
• November 2024: San Francisco voters approved Proposition K, a ballot measure co-sponsored by SPUR, to permanently establish the Upper Great Highway as recreational open space closed to private vehicles. It passed with 55% of the vote. Notably, District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio supported Prop. K, while only 36% of District 4 voters did. These results reflected, in part, the district’s frustration over losing space for motorists and concern that highway commuters would reroute onto neighboring residential streets.
• September 2025: Sunset activists who had opposed Prop. K launched a recall campaign against Engardio, arguing he had not represented his district’s will. The recall succeeded in a September 2025 special election.
• December 2025: Mayor Daniel Lurie appointed City College Trustee Alan Wong to the vacant District 4 seat.
• January 2026: Wong, who did not support Prop. K, authored legislation to place a measure on the November 2026 ballot that would close the park and convert it back into a highway, but he could not secure enough support from his board colleagues.
• July 2026: After Wong’s effort failed, Sunset neighborhood activists filed and qualified this measure for the November ballot by collecting signatures.

Prop. G requires a simple majority (50% plus one vote) to pass.

Equity Impacts

Closing Sunset Dunes Park on weekdays would require the city and community organizations to eliminate many multilingual, multigenerational park programs and the permanent installations, such as a playground and public art, that support their success. Low-income residents would lose a free amenity that helps families spend time together, children play safely, and city dwellers connect with the natural environment.

Pro

• Southbound car commuters may experience slight relief from delays during peak rush hour. Chain of Lakes Drive and Lower Great Highway have about one additional vehicle per minute at peak hour than pre-pandemic traffic because of the Upper Great Highway closure.

Cons

• Prop. G encourages drivers to rely on an unreliable roadway. The Great Highway Extension connecting San Francisco to Daly City will be permanently closed due to coastal erosion whether or not this measure passes, so car commuters will reroute inland either way. Before Prop. K, sand accumulation unexpectedly closed the Upper Great Highway up to 65 days per year.
• Reopening the roadway would cost $350,000 to $700,000 annually for sand removal, plus more than $10 million in one-time costs to restore and replace traffic signals.
• Residents would lose a permanent oceanfront promenade that makes the coast accessible to people and activities that can’t safely share space with high-speed cars, such as wheelchair users, roller skaters, and kids on bicycles.
• Returning private vehicles to the area would increase runoff pollution in a sensitive coastal ecosystem.
• Closing the park would delay the nature-based approaches to coastal erosion and sea level rise that SPUR outlined in the Ocean Beach Master Plan, which direct spending toward dune and habitat restoration rather than roadway maintenance.
• Even if the area limits cars on weekends in favor of recreation, nearly all amenities that support recreational users’ comfort and access will have to be removed permanently. These amenities include benches, public art, and a brand-new playground.

Source (https://www.spur.org/voter-guide/2026-11/sf-prop-g-cars-sunset-dunes)

In the 2024 General Election, San Franciscans voted to create a large, permanent, oceanfront park where the Great Highway once was, to make a more liveable and enjoyable city for all of us to call home. Since April 12, 2025, the 2-mile oceanfront park has been used every day of the year, averaging 4,900 daily visits (3,800 on weekdays, 7,200 on weekend days and holidays). Former Supervisor Mar has publicly changed his opinion in favor of the park, having seen the impact firsthand. SF YIMBY is proud to continue to support this park and endorses voting NO to closing the park and bringing back the highway.

In the 2024 General Election, San Franciscans voted to create a large, permanent, oceanfront park where the Great Highway once was, to make a more liveable and enjoyable city for all of us to call home. Since April 12, 2025, the 2-mile oceanfront park has been used every day of the year, averaging 4,900 daily visits (3,800 on weekdays, 7,200 on weekend days and holidays). Former Supervisor Mar has publicly changed his opinion in favor of the park, having seen the impact firsthand. SF YIMBY is proud to continue to support this park and endorses voting NO to closing the park and bringing back the highway.

San Francisco voters have already answered this question. In November 2024 they passed Proposition K, closing the Upper Great Highway to cars and creating what is now Sunset Dunes Park. The park has repaid that decision many times over. Thousands of people visit every day, on foot, on bikes, on skates, with strollers and wheelchairs, along an oceanfront that for decades was mostly accessed by car. The Sierra Club endorsed the measures that established and protected this park, and members will remember that we opposed a similar attempt to shut down the park in 2022, which voters also rejected decisively. This November's measure is the same idea in a new coat of paint, and our position is the same. The measure would put private vehicles back on the Great Highway on weekdays, reducing Sunset Dunes to a weekend-only park. Backers call this a compromise. It is not. A dune system cannot be restored two days a week.

Greenbelt Alliance says NO to Measure G in San Francisco to save the Sunset Dunes Park (https://www.savesunsetdunes.org/) and keep the 2-mile stretch of the Upper Great Highway along Ocean Beach closed to cars and open for people every day. Measure G proposes to reopen the road on weekdays. The campaign says the road would remain part of the car-free park on weekends.

In 2024, we endorsed Proposition K (https://www.greenbelt.org/blog/yes-proposition-k-san-francisco/) to close this segment of the highway to first establish this stretch of Ocean Beach as a park open to the public. Prop K was successful and won on the ballots, and since then has seen a huge turnout of people, as the city’s 3rd most visited park.

According to KQED (https://www.kqed.org/news/12099969/street-safety-advocates-accuse-yes-on-g-campaign-of-pushing-bad-data), “the majority of voters who live closest to the Great Highway opposed its closure in 2024, and its status remains at the center of west side politics, leading to the recall of District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio in 2025 and a now-dismissed lawsuit challenging Proposition K.” Measure G campaign claims that reopening this stretch of the road would lead to better road safety; however, this claim is being denied by pedestrian-safety advocates, including partners like SPUR, who say the campaign’s “new branding misappropriates street-safety imagery and falsely suggests that the proposition would increase neighborhood safety.”

Why It Matters

During the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020, a portion of the Upper Great Highway along Ocean Beach closed to cars and welcomed residents to enjoy the highway as a recreational and social public space. But this arrangement was set to expire in 2025, and Proposition K established a permanent closure and oceanside park 

Climate change is currently causing parts of Ocean Beach to erode and making the highway unreliable and threatening its longevity and safety. Before the permanent closure, the highway was already closed up to 65 days per year due to sand removal, costing the City nearly $2 million annually.

Voters have just recently weighed in on the same question, and they said YES to open spaces for public recreation. We support Sunset Dunes again in 2026 and urge voters to vote No on Measure G in San Francisco.

Source (https://www.greenbelt.org/blog/vote-no-measure-g-san-francisco/)

NO on Prop G, which would rip up Sunset Dunes Park: Since Sunset Dunes opened last year, it’s become the City’s third most-visited park, thanks to its children’s play areas, a skate and bike park, public art, seating, and hammocks. Nearly 60 percent of those visits are on weekdays. Prop G threatens to undo all of that and force our City to spend nearly $10 million to destroy the park and bring back the vehicular pollution we just got rid of, plus $2 million a year on a crumbling, sand-covered road. It would push families out of this beautiful recreational space and hurt the local businesses that are patronized by park visitors. Some of our members opposed 2024’s Prop K, the measure that closed the Great Highway to make way for this park, but now that Sunset Dunes is part of our lives, we think it’s in San Francisco’s best interest to keep it the vibrant public space that it is.

Source (https://indivisiblesf.org/endorsements)