THE EAST BAY SHORELINE is on track to get greener.
Plans have recently advanced to transform a former horse racing track in Albany and an industrial lot on the Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline in East Oakland into waterfront parks. Together, the two projects could add 168 acres of public green space and shoreline access on the East Bay.
The projects are expected to plan for sea-level rise from human-caused climate change that could see Bay Area ocean levels rise up to 6 feet by 2100.
Storage lot makeover on the MLK Shoreline
The initial phase of the project on the MLK Shoreline in Oakland included adding 22,000 cubic yards of soil to raise the level of the area ahead of expected sea-level rise. The next phase will include a makeover of seven acres of land owned by East Bay Regional Park District that’s been leased out for decades, most recently to a trucking company for storage.
The $16.9 million project received a $1 million boost in a federal grant announced in March by Rep. Lateefah Simon, a Democrat from Oakland. Construction could start this summer and finish next year.
The eight-acre area is on the north shore of San Leandro Bay, and one acre is already park space — the Tidewater Day Use Area, a grassy area with a couple of picnic tables and a boat launch that looks out on a tidal canal and quaint waterfront Alameda homes.
On a recent Saturday afternoon, Brenden Prins-McKinney visited the park to launch a small row boat along with his father Odis McKinney and his dog Freddy. Prins-McKinney said he lives five minutes away in Alameda.
“It’s really nice being so close,” Prins-McKinney says, adding that he’d like to find a way to rig up the paddle boat to his bicycle to take it to the boat launch without a car.
McKinney, who lives in Los Angeles and was in town visiting his son, said he likes having parks in the neighborhood, and the Tidewater expansion will add a lot of green space.
The project has been in the works for years. A concept plan from 2019 describes adding a lawn, native plants, a nature-based children’s play space, a 120-space parking lot, and picnic tables.
Retiring the racetrack on the Eastshore Freeway
Separately, plans recently advanced to transform Golden Gate Fields, a 161-acre former horse racetrack that sits on the Berkeley-Albany border, into a waterfront park.
In a deal announced in March, the San Francisco-based national nonprofit Trust for Public Land secured the exclusive right to purchase the scandal-ridden racetrack, which closed in 2024, for $175 million. If the purchase is finalized, the nonprofit plans to transfer ownership to the East Bay Regional Park District to create a huge new shoreline park.
“Golden Gate Fields offers a truly generational opportunity to reimagine a world-class bayside park for the Bay Area,” Guillermo Rodriguez, Pacific region vice president of the Trust for Public Land, wrote in a statement. “We have the chance to expand shoreline access, restore vital ecosystems, and create a place where hundreds of thousands of residents can connect with the outdoors.”
Redeveloping the space into a park could include habitat restoration that would “help protect coastal residential communities from the impacts of our changing climate,” Elizabeth Echols, an East Bay Regional Park District board member, wrote in a statement.
The deal to purchase the racetrack must be finalized by the end of 2026. If the purchase is successful, a community engagement process is expected to gather input from residents on what they want for the park.
With a footprint nearly five times the size of the Albany Bulb, the park would offer ample space for new possibilities to benefit people, animals, and plants alike.
The KneeDeep Times is a not-for-profit digital magazine reporting on climate resilience and adaptation, with a focus on the San Francisco Bay Area and surrounding regions.
This story originally appeared in KneeDeep Times.