Gashouse Cove's New Park Comes Last. Here's What Comes Before It.
The southern end of the Marina's East Harbor already looks different. Most of the boats that used to sit there have moved to open slips farther north or left the harbor, and many of the crumbling wooden piers are gone. Those slips will not come back. The shallow water near shore is set to become a community dock for kayaks and other nonmotorized boats, part of a roughly 5-acre park between the Marina Green and Fort Mason.
That park is the end of the plan. It comes after PG&E cleans up the cove, a contractor is hired, a regional permit is issued, and the harbor's fuel dock goes offline for about 18 months. If you walk, run or paddle along this stretch, most of what you'll see over the next few years comes from those earlier steps.
This is the city's second attempt at the plan. The first version would have added about 185 boat slips to the West Harbor, and residents argued it would block views from the Marina. After months of protest, the Board of Supervisors scrapped it in February 2024.
The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department's staff report shows the revised plan has 170 fewer slips than the 2023 version, because the 2024 ordinance limits how far the West Harbor can expand. Instead, the new plan adds slips north of the East Harbor breakwater, leaving 536 city-owned slips across both harbors. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported in April, the redesign doesn't block views for homes on Marina Boulevard. Some berths are also getting bigger, moving from 20 to 25 feet up to 30 to 35 feet. The department says those larger sizes are in higher demand at marinas around the Bay Area. Smaller boats will get side-tie spots instead.
The Recreation and Park Commission approved this concept design unanimously on April 16, 2026. Everything below follows from that vote.
According to the staff report, the plan is a place where anyone can get onto the water without owning a boat. The department says every feature listed for the shallow water basin and the land around it came out of its community outreach:
Out on the water, the plan adds a new breakwater running from the jetty past the Wave Organ, a second new breakwater off the existing East Harbor one, and upgrades to the current East Harbor breakwater so the public can walk on it. The walkable breakwater was added because of community feedback, and the department expects it to offer views of the Bay and Alcatraz. Commission chair Kat Anderson told the Chronicle after the vote, "I can't wait to get my paddleboard in the water there."
The money comes from a settlement with PG&E. The total budget is $190 million: $90 million for the cleanup, $70 million for the marina and park, and $30 million in soft costs. PG&E pays $160.6 million. Recreation and Park repays $29.4 million over 30 years at zero interest, using only marina revenues, and repayment doesn't begin until all the work is finished. The department expects no added cost to the city's General Fund.
The cleanup comes before the park. The staff report says the marina and park improvements will be built after PG&E finishes its remediation of the cove, the site of a 19th-century gas plant. The report's schedule treats the cleanup and the improvements as one joint project with a single three-year construction period starting in mid-2027, and the cleanup comes first. Here is the published sequence, in order:
If the three-year construction period starts in mid-2027, the finished shoreline arrives around 2030. That means the cove's in-between state, half emptied and then fenced for construction, will last longer than the time since the original plan was scrapped. The April project update didn't list any closures of the Bay Trail or Marina Green paths.
The biggest open question is the fuel dock. The Chronicle's July report called the Gashouse Cove dock the northern waterfront's only operating marine fuel station. In July, a boat carrying 20 people capsized near Alcatraz. During the response, the cove's dock was a staging and refueling hub for emergency crews, and the paved area next to it, outside Fort Mason, served as an incident command center.
The Chronicle reported that on June 17, the Harbor Safety Committee of the San Francisco Bay Region sent BCDC a letter signed by chairman Scott Humphrey. It said, "The proposed removal of the Gashouse Cove fuel dock raises concerns about emergency preparedness, navigation safety, maritime resiliency, and public access to San Francisco Bay." The letter asked BCDC to require the dock to stay open during the cleanup and afterward. It also noted that the San Francisco Bar Pilots depend on the dock. The dock's longtime operator, Kaplan, and Capt. Maggie Hallahan, who sits on the California Boating and Waterways Commission, have both argued in public that the dock can keep running through the work.
The city's plan has changed over the past few months. In April, the Chronicle reported that the fuel dock would move to the West Harbor near the St. Francis Yacht Club, and that Anderson had said fuel service wouldn't be interrupted during construction. By July, Recreation and Park spokesperson Tamara Aparton was describing something different. Police and fire rescue boats would work from the West Harbor, where they are already based. Fuel would come from the Hyde Street Harbor fuel dock, which is currently offline and about 1.5 miles east on the other side of Fort Mason. The Port of San Francisco and Recreation and Park hope to have it running by June 2027. Until then, the Hyde Street dock's private operator has promised to deliver gasoline by tanker truck at Pier 45.
BCDC's permit is what determines the cleanup's timing. On June 24, BCDC told the Harbor Safety Committee that the permit application from Recreation and Park and PG&E was incomplete, so any action would be premature. A BCDC spokesperson said a hearing might be scheduled in October if the application was complete by then.
BCDC's published agendas for September 3, September 17 and November 5 don't include this project. The October 15 agenda did schedule a hearing, but it was for Bay Plan Amendment No. 1-26, not Gashouse Cove. A May 2027 start still depends on that hearing being scheduled and on a vote. The fuel dock's future will likely be decided there too, since the Harbor Safety Committee addressed its letter to BCDC.
The project's own channels are the best place to track these steps. The project page lists project manager Monica Scott at [email protected]. PG&E takes questions about the cleanup at [email protected]. In its staff report, the department says it will keep posting updates on the project webpage, on NextDoor and in its E-news.
The shoreline will look much as it does now until the cleanup begins next spring. Here's what's coming up nearby:
If you own a home within a few blocks of the East Harbor, the published timeline above, the fuel dock debate and the permit that's still pending will matter when you sell. Sage Real Estate follows projects like Gashouse Cove so we can tell buyers exactly what's planned for the shoreline and when. Discover what your home is worth, and we'll explain how the waterfront plans may factor into its sale.
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