East Bay Racetrack Golden Gate Fields Could Soon Be a New Public Waterfront Park

The 160-acre waterfront property that was once home to Golden Gate Fields horse racing track could soon become a new public park, linking more than eight miles of open space along the East Bay shoreline.

Trust for Public Land, a national conservation group, announced Tuesday that it had reached an agreement to purchase the site and transfer it to the East Bay Regional Park District, with intentions to restore the natural landscape of the bayshore and create recreation space for residents.

“This really is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to put nature and public access to the forefront,” said Guillermo Rodriguez, Trust for Public Land’s state director. “We at the Trust for Public Land are super excited to turn the page over on a new chapter of what this property can mean for generations to come.”

Rodriguez said the nonprofit has until the end of the year to raise $175 million to purchase the site, which has been known as a prominent horse racing track at the border of Albany and Berkeley for more than 80 years. Even decades before Golden Gate Fields shuttered in 2024, residents, local elected officials and developers have considered what could become of the rare expanse of undeveloped waterfront land in the East Bay.

Restoring the shoreline and creating park space that links McLaughlin Eastshore State Park to the south and Albany Bulb and Point Isabel Regional Shoreline to the north has always been popular among residents.

“Golden Gate Fields is located in the middle of McLaughlin Eastshore State Park. Its protection will fill a missing gap in public lands and is the culmination of decades of work and advocacy,” said Robert Cheasty, the executive director of the Citizens for East Shore Parks. “From the very creation of this 8.5-mile shoreline park … [a] major parcel has been missing — the centerpiece that has been occupied by the racetrack. Now, this crucial piece can be added.”

In 1990, Albany voters passed Measure C, which restricts the waterfront land in the city to open space, parks and recreation and other water-related uses. It also permits building restaurants, bars and commercial recreation or entertainment spaces. To pursue housing or a large commercial or retail development would require another vote. Berkeley zoning codes also restrict the prospective uses for the property, about 40 acres of which are in its city limits.

“I am excited to partner with the East Bay Regional Park District to engage our community in reimagining the former racetrack as a vibrant public space, expanding opportunities to gather in community and experience the beauty of our shoreline,” Berkeley Mayor Adena Ishii said. “From kayaking and kite flying to sunset dining, Berkeley’s waterfront parks are a treasured destination enjoyed by residents and visitors alike.”

In the late 2000s, Albany also conducted a wide outreach project that found significant support for a park.

The city’s “Voices to Vision” report, which surveyed about 10% of Albany residents, found that the vast majority wanted to expand its waterfront open space, while some were concerned about the loss of tax revenue that the racetrack generated.

According to the city, the property generates about $1.1 million in special revenues for the city and $700,000 for the Albany Unified School District annually. When it was operating, the racetrack fueled another $150,000 to $300,000.

The report concluded that the majority of the land should be maintained as open space, and a park should be created. It recommended that a smaller portion could be used for commercial and nonprofit development.

Over the years, developers have proposed other uses for the site, similar to the massive projects at other former Bay Area racetracks, like San Bruno’s Tanforan, which is now a major mall, and Bay Meadows in San Mateo, a mixed-use development that includes more than 1,000 housing units, as well as significant retail and office space.

In the early 2000s, Los Angeles developer Rick Caruso proposed a mixed-use development featuring an outdoor mall and apartments at Golden Gate Fields, and the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory eyed it for a new campus in 2011. More recently, after the track announced it would close, UC Berkeley graduate students considered alternative uses of the site that included housing.

UC Berkeley professor Zachary Lamb said his students took on the project to examine ways to address the “dire need to build housing in the inner Bay,” especially in places close to transit infrastructure.

“We really wanted to be responsive to the housing crisis and demonstrate through these hypothetical design exercises that this site is big enough and it’s well-positioned enough that you could accomplish a lot of open space, ecological restoration, climate resilience … lots of goals that could really benefit the wider community — while also building a lot of housing,” he said.

Rodriguez said the Bay Meadows project, which features about a dozen acres of open space, makes sense for its location, but that for the Bay Area’s third major racetrack redevelopment, “we have the opportunity to put nature and public access in front of the line.”

Over the next year, Trust for Public Land will be focused on raising the funds needed to act on their purchase option, which stands until the end of the year.

The East Bay Regional Park District has already offered to put $20 million toward the purchase. That funding will come from an Alameda and Contra Costa County bond measure from 2008, which provided half a billion dollars in bonds to expand regional parks and protect open space.

Rodriguez said the nonprofit will also pursue state funds as well as private donations, noting that Proposition 4, California’s 2024 climate bond initiative, set aside significant funding to acquire properties like the Golden Gate Fields site.

“We’re approaching various state agencies who have a high interest in the property, who have high interest in restoration of the Bay, who have a high interest in expanding biodiversity and protecting biodiversity,” he said. “We think we have some real opportunities to knock on the public doors.”

Local state representatives Sen. Jesse Arreguín and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks have already voiced support for the project.

If the purchase goes through, the land would then be transferred to the East Bay Regional Parks District, which manages an extensive system of parks and open spaces across Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

It’s not yet clear what the park could look like, or how much it could cost. The agency would conduct a community engagement process, which Rodriguez estimated could take around five years.

He said he’s heard interest from residents in expanding opportunities for “active recreation,” like ball fields similar to those at the Tom Bates Regional Sports Complex, south of the property, and restoration of the natural shoreline.

“With 161 acres, you really have the opportunity to dream big,” Rodriguez said.

Elizabeth Echols, the East Bay Regional Parks District director who represents the area, told Berkeleyside that the district still needs to determine what environmental remediation the land needs, and how it would pay for the development.

KQED’s Sara Hossaini contributed to this report.