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A plan to turn the shuttered Golden Gate Fields racetrack in Alameda County into a massive community park could become a reality after $125 million was earmarked by state lawmakers to fund the proposal.
The money was proposed in a bill from State Sen. Jesse Arreguin (D-Oakland) that was made public Saturday.
The 161-acre property was a racetrack from 1941 until it was closed in 2024 amid a national economic downturn in horse racing.
The Trust for Public Land agreed to purchase the land earlier this year, if it could raise the needed $175 million before the end of 2026.
Arreguin’s bill would allocate funds from the state’s Proposition 4 climate bond that was passed in 2024. That proposition authorized issuing $10 billion in bonds to fund a range of climate resilience and safe drinking water projects.
The Trust for Public Land had about $20 million on hand when it entered into the purchase agreement. If approved, the new funding would complete the deal.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reclaim 161 acres of East Bay waterfront for the public, and we are seizing it,” Arreguin said in a statement.
“With this $125 million investment, Golden Gate Fields can go from a shuttered racetrack to one of the great waterfront parks in California. For years, our community fought for a future where this land belongs to everyone – not behind fences, but open to families, cyclists, pedestrians and future generations,” he said.
The Trust for Public Land then plans to donate the land – which is split between the city lines of Albany and Berkeley – to the East Bay Regional Park District.
The organization’s proposal for the land includes a combination of recreation amenities and open space. The park would link other protected parkland and form a contiguous open space connecting to Albany Beach, McLaughlin Eastshore State Park, Point Isabel Regional Shoreline, Albany Bulb, and Brooks Island Regional Preserve.
