Plans to convert Gashouse Cove in San Francisco’s East Harbor into an expanded 5-acre public park next to the Marina Green with a community dock and water recreation are finally moving forward — more than two years after the city went back to the drawing board in the face of intense pushback from Marina District residents.
Driving the project is PG&E’s environmental cleanup of Gashouse Cove, the site of a 19th century power plant, under a legal settlement with the city. The project requires the relocation of boat slips from the East Harbor — one of two small harbors along the Marina waterfront — but the original plan, which involved installing around 185 boat slips into the West Harbor, would have blocked views for Marina residents.
After months of protests by residents, the Board of Supervisors scrapped the plan in February 2024. Over the next two years, a new plan took shape, and on Thursday, the Recreation and Park Commission approved a conceptual design for the Marina Improvement and Remediation Project.
“This plan is a culmination of years of government involvement and civic advocacy,” said Rec and Park Commission chair Kat Anderson, after the unanimous vote to approve the plan and accept environmental safeguards approved by the Planning Department. “This is going to be a beautiful waterfront recreational area and I can’t wait to get my paddleboard in the water there.”
The new plan does not result in any obstructions to the view for homeowners on Marina Boulevard. Instead, additional boat slips will be installed north of the breakwater at the East Harbor. The total number of boat slips in the East Harbor has been reduced by 170 in the new plan, to a total of 536 city-owned boat slips in the East and West Harbors.
Most of the boats in the East Harbor have already been temporarily relocated and the crumbling wooden piers that served as harbor have been removed. Those slips will not be coming back as the shallow water basin near shore is slated to become a community dock and recreational facility for kayakers and other non-motorized watercraft.
Other planned amenities include a widened shoreline and bay trail improvements including nature exploration and a small plaza. Beach volleyball courts and a picnic area will be added, along with new planting, irrigation, lighting and furnishings.
As part of the plan, the Gashouse Cove fuel dock — a fixture in the East Harbor for generations, and the only public fuel dock San Francisco — will be relocated to the West Harbor, near the St. Francis Yacht Club. The East Harbor fuel tanks are underground; plans for a new West Harbor fuel dock have not been finalized.
Chrissy Kaplan, operator of the Gashouse Cove fuel dock for more than 30 years, told commissioners Thursday that her dock has come to the aid of the waterfront during emergencies as a fuel station for fireboats. “I object to the design concept for this project,” she said. “You are eliminating a resource that is not broken.”
Anderson said there will be no interruption in fuel service during the construction process.