Community-Led Vision for San Francisco’s Newest Coastal Park
In 2025, San Francisco Recreation & Parks, in partnership with the Friends of Sunset Dunes, began piloting tactical improvements like public art, a skate space and bike pump track, seating, and new park amenities along the former four-lane Great Highway. Today, despite the limited park infrastructure in place while project planning is ongoing, this oceanfront promenade is visited by thousands every day for recreation, community-building, and sustainable transportation. Concurrently, the City is undertaking studies of sea level rise impacts on Ocean Beach and revegetating its dunes. As storms and coastal erosion increasingly threaten public infrastructure and private property, coastal protection of this neighborhood is just as important as the environmental health and resilience of Ocean Beach itself. Looking ahead, Sunset Dunes has potential to protect and enrich the communities adjacent to it and be a place where all residents and visitors can enjoy the coast.
The park belongs to everyone. In a community-led, co-creative engagement process, CMG, together with Friends of Sunset Dunes and San Francisco Recreation & Parks, envision a coast that is more resilient, accessible, and enjoyable for people of all ages and abilities. CMG supported outreach to understand public perceptions of today’s park infrastructure and reimagine this open space with improvements that inspire community vision and joy.
Healthy dunes are essential to ensuring Sunset Dunes thrives for decades to come. They create robust natural habitat, while also preventing sand from blowing into the park and neighborhood. The Ocean Beach dunes have eroded over decades. People walking through the dune grass causes it to die and the dunes to fail, threatening this sensitive habitat. San Francisco Recreation & Parks are leading the Dune Revegetation and Stabilization Project to plant the dunes with native species and revitalize the local ecosystem, in partnership with the California Academy of Sciences, National Park Service, Surfrider Foundation, Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, San Francisco Estuary Institute, and Friends of Sunset Dunes.
Sea level rise is bringing bigger storms and increasing coastal erosion, which will threaten public infrastructure and private property in the future if no action is taken. Alongside a study by San Francisco Planning on sea level rise at Ocean Beach, San Francisco Recreation & Parks, the California Coastal Conservancy, and the National Park Service are conducting long-term studies on the risks of sea level rise, storm events, and erosion to inform potential solutions at Sunset Dunes.
Sunset Dunes is the largest pedestrianization project in California history. Since officially opening on April 12, 2025, over 40,000 people have visited every week to walk, bike, relax, socialize, enjoy nature, and more. Together, we have a historical opportunity to address the risks of sea level rise and a changing coastline, while preserving over 50 acres of park and open space for generations of San Francisco residents and visitors to enjoy.
