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A 2024 file photo shows Golden Gate Fields on a race day shortly before its closure. Credit: Ximena Natera, Catchlight\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\nA 2024 file photo shows Golden Gate Fields on a race day shortly before its closure. Credit: Ximena Natera, Catchlight\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n
This piece was produced by Bay Nature<\/a> \u2014 a nonprofit, independent media organization that connects the people of the San Francisco Bay Area to the natural world.<\/p>\n This year, lovers of the East Bay shoreline got a boon: a \u201conce-in-a-generation\u201d opportunity to transform a piece of prime shoreline into a park<\/a> for the people. Governor Gavin Newsom wants the state to foot $125 million of the $175 million purchase price<\/a> for the former Golden Gate Fields horse-racing track \u2014 using funds from the $10 billion\u00a02024 climate bond, Proposition 4<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The catch: Using this money could come at the expense of many other projects, says Annie Burke, executive director of TOGETHER Bay Area, a regional coalition of conservation organizations. Coalition members alone had a\u00a0$1.26 billion list of potential projects<\/a>\u00a0for Proposition 4 money \u2014 and Golden Gate Fields wasn\u2019t on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n The state money would go toward helping the Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit organization, purchase the former Golden Gate Fields, a 161-acre site across Albany and Berkeley, just south of the Albany Bulb. The site has long been envisioned as a landmark park that would provide disadvantaged communities a natural gem in their backyard.\u00a0<\/p>\n This March, the Trust for Public Land secured an option with the Stronach Group, the owner of the property, to purchase the land for $175 million and then transfer it to the East Bay Regional Park District. Trust for Public Land has until Dec. 15 to come up with the money, which will also cover the demolition of the remaining grandstands, stables, and other relics of the site\u2019s horse racing past. <\/p>\n \u201cThis timeline is moving quicker than anyone imagined,\u201d says Allison Brooks, assistant general manager for external affairs at the East Bay Regional Park District. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of variables coming together \u2026 We have this administration that\u2019s changing \u2026 and a property owner that really wants to move.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Newsom\u2019s May budget revision, the Trust for Public Land says it can raise $30 million from local and philanthropic sources for the purchase, adding to the $20 million that the East Bay Regional Park District has committed. (The May budget revision is an update of the governor\u2019s original budget proposal to incorporate new economic forecasts.)<\/p>\n Newsom\u2019s May budget would round it off. The $125 million would come from about $633 million in remaining funding (accounting for other 2026-2027 budget allocations) from pots in Proposition 4, the bond for environmental and climate work approved by voters in 2024. The money draws from grant programs and funds under the California State Coastal Conservancy (SCC), the Wildlife Conservation Board and the California Natural Resources Agency. \u201cThis acquisition is a once-in-a-century opportunity to repurpose a former horse racing track into an iconic shoreline park and recreational hub,\u201d\u00a0the proposal<\/a>\u00a0says.<\/p>\n The transfer would nearly halve the $43.3 million left for the SCC to give to San Francisco Bay programs, and would reduce funding in competitive grant programs for coastal resilience and fish and wildlife resources that are run by the SCC and the Wildlife Conservation Board. Amy Hutzel, the SCC\u2019s executive officer, wrote in an emailed statement to Bay Nature that supporting the project \u201caligns squarely with the Conservancy\u2019s objectives for the region and the aims of the Climate Bond.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Prop 4 money is intended to be spent over a 15-year period. Language in the bill authorizes the Department of Finance to transfer money back to the SCC and Wildlife Conservation Board \u201cto the extent additional philanthropic or other non-state funding sources are identified to offset the state\u2019s contributions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n But TOGETHER Bay Area leaders worry, given the limited pot of Prop 4 funds, other projects could lose out with this transfer. \u201cThe allocation of funds to the really exciting, really transformative project of Golden Gate Fields can take funding away from the competitive grant-making program that those funds were originally allocated to,\u201d Burke says. In a letter to the State Assembly Budget Committee, Burke wrote, \u201cIt\u2019s critical that we invest in smaller projects which are capably led by Native American Tribes, Native-led organizations, community-based organizations, and many others.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In the letter, Burke requested that $25 million of the $125 million come from the state\u2019s general fund, as opposed to Proposition 4, and for the SCC to get an additional $60 million for its coastal resilience grant program. \u201cWe hope this opens the door for further discussion about the funding structure, and not the merit of the Golden Gate Fields Project itself,\u201d wrote Jessica Little, policy director for TOGETHER Bay Area. East Bay Regional Park District supports Burke\u2019s request, says Brooks, especially as money from the general fund has more flexibility. She notes that the park district, too, has projects that were counting on this year\u2019s Prop 4 money that may now need to wait.<\/p>\n The California Council of Land Trusts has not taken a position on the fund transfer. In an emailed statement, executive director Caroline Goodkin wrote, \u201cWe are acutely aware that there are more land conservation projects throughout the state than there is funding available.\u201d<\/p>\n Norman La Force, the vice-president of Citizens for East Shore Parks, has spent three decades working to secure a park at Golden Gate Fields. \u201cWe have this opportunity, and we need to grab it as we can,\u201d he says. In an emailed statement, Daniel Villase\u00f1or, deputy director of communications for the California Natural Resources Agency, likened the future park to San Francisco\u2019s Crissy Field, a former airstrip that\u00a025 years of restoration transformed into a tidal marsh and popular tourist destination<\/a>. (Crissy Field\u2019s construction was funded through a historic philanthropic campaign.) \u201cLike the Klamath Dam removal, Salton Sea restoration and big urban park projects, transformational and complex efforts like this require state leadership and directed appropriations,\u201d wrote Villase\u00f1or.\u00a0<\/p>\n California\u2019s state budget will be finalized on June 15 for the July 1 start to the fiscal year.\u00a0<\/p>\n