These are the next steps for Great Highway's coastal-trail conversion

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a closure of Great Highway between Sloat and Skyline boulevards that would turn a portion of the road of into a multiuse coastal trail.

Construction on the project, which will build a mile-long trail alongside amenities such as a pedestrian plaza and upgraded restrooms, is slated to begin late next year. Project officials said they expect the trail will be open to the public in 2030.

The proposal has been in development since 2012 as part of the SPUR’s Ocean Beach Climate Change Adaptation Project, which aims to improve seashore resilience to the impacts of climate change.

SFPUC spokesperson Nancy Crowley told The Examiner that this is The City’s first major climate-change adaptation project. To protect the west side’s existing wastewater and recycled-water infrastructure from coastal erosion and rising sea levels, a partially below-ground retaining wall is being built. The wall will have a sloped crown that will be covered in sand to mimic a sand dune.

The project also aims to link Great Highway with Fort Funston and Lake Merced as part of the state’s network of coastal trails.

In terms of where the project stands, Crowley said, “The City has completed state environmental review. We are in the process of completing federal environmental review.”

The SFPUC is still seeking final approval from the California Coastal Commission , which is expected to vote on the project during its next scheduled meeting June 12-14.

Collaborators include the Recreation and Parks Department, Public Works, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the Federal Highway Administration and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.

An SFMTA spokesperson said that the agency plans to improve intersections around the closed area to accommodate new traffic patterns stemming from the closure of roughly 3,300 feet of Great Highway. The SFMTA also has its eyes on additional improvements at the Sloat and Skyline intersections, as well as along Sloat Boulevard.

The agency will reroute the Muni 23 Monterey bus line’s layover and turnaround, while also maintaining an adjacent one-way service-access road.

Several groups have already spoken out against the proposal. Last month, officials with the San Francisco Zoological Society expressed trepidation over one component of the project, which would require the San Francisco Zoo to build a new entrance at 47th Avenue. The existing 47th Avenue entrance would then be converted into an exit point.

An SF Zoo representative said that the entrance and exit along Great Highway serve as guests’ primary access points. Officials also said they worried that the layout wouldn’t accommodate the influx of visitors expected on the west side in the aftermath of Mayor London Breed announcing that San Francisco will be receiving pandas from China .

Bill McLaughlin, a former member of SPUR’s Ocean Beach Master Plan stakeholder group told The Examiner that the proposal in its current state falls short of the goals stakeholders set over 10 years ago when they first began hammering out a plan. He represented Surfrider Foundation, a nonprofit, at the time. He also led the “Resore Sloat” campaign from 2010 to 2019. Feasibility studies conducted in 2018 reversed decisions, he said.

The master plan called for roads and parking lots to be relocated to provide space for beach and dune restoration, McLaughlin told The Examiner. The effort was to create a living shoreline, he said.

Sand dunes and back beaches were proposed by the Surfrider Foundation in 2022 as possible buffers between the structure and the coastal trail.

“This is not the compromise project that we had aimed to see through,” McLaughlin said. “The original goal was to balance beach restoration with infrastructure protection.”

Before the partially below-ground retaining wall was picked, the original draft plan called for a living, ecologically functional shoreline that allowed waves and sand to wash over the structure. With the currently proposed seawall blocking the shoreline as it erodes, McLaughlin said that sea-level rise and climate-change-driven storm activity might test the wall.

During McLaughlin’s time with the “Restore Sloat” campaign, he deemed the 60 parking spaces being built at Skyline Boulevard deficient. McLaughlin said that hundreds of people frequently visit Ocean Beach and that initial proposals earmarked the construction of two parking lots — one at Skyline Boulevard and one at the end of Zoo Road.

The nonprofit also said that public access to Ocean Beach should be built not with concrete stairwells but rather sand ladders, as those are low impact and can be easily fixed in the event of wave damage.

Crowley told The Examiner that the project would improve coastal access, recreation and habitat at south Ocean Beach, as well as offer views of the Pacific Ocean.

It would protect vital infrastructure and habitat at the beach, she said.

McLaughlin said he would be ready to petition the Coastal Commission to deny The City’s proposal at next month’s meeting.

“SFPUC needs to go back to the drawing board to come up with a better plan,” he said. “After all these years of delay and inaction, the public deserves more.”