East Bay could get new regional park at site of Golden Gate Fields

By John Ramos

A deal was struck by a nonprofit to purchase the old Golden Gate Fields racetrack on the Berkeley/Albany shoreline, and it said it plans to give the land to the East Bay Regional Parks District, so it can be turned into a regional park.

The parking lot at Golden Gate Fields is massive, evidence of a bygone era when thousands of people turned out each week to watch the horse races.  The facility was built right before WWII, and famed jockey Willie Shoemaker won his first race there. But over the years, the popularity of horse racing dwindled, and in 2024, the track closed. But there is still a reason to go there, as Albany resident Joy Kawaguchi well knows. She was taking one of her frequent walks along the Bay Trail behind the racetrack.

“You can see most of the Bay,” Kawaguchi said. “You can see the Golden Gate Bridge.  You can see the San Francisco skyline. It’s just a beautiful place to walk.”

And it may even be more beautiful in years to come. A land conservation group called the Trust for Public Lands, or TPL, has made a deal with the property’s owners to buy the land and then give it to the East Bay Regional Parks District to become a new 130-acre open-space park.  

On Tuesday, some of the stakeholders gathered in the old grandstand to reflect on what’s to come.

“You monitor, and you wait until there’s a moment in time when you might have a chance to do something this big and monumental. And that moment is now,” said Dave Sutton, TPL’s California Land Conservation Director. “You know, it’d be a keystone part of not just my career, but so many people that have spent so many decades in their life trying to create this opportunity that we’re now trying to realize.”

“We have a vision for where we want to get in the future, and then we prepare for it, and then we’re ready when that opportunity comes along,” said East Bay Regional Parks Board Member Elizabeth Echols. “We’re not there yet, but yes, I believe so.  It feels really good.”

It’s also been a vision for Robert Cheasty. For decades, the former mayor of Albany and Executive Director of Citizens for East Shore Parks has been hoping for something like this.

“Ah, it’s going to be gorgeous. It’s going to be beautiful,” said Cheasty. “And Fleming Point will be a view spot for everybody.”

Fleming Point is the small, naturally occurring hill that the grandstand was built against. It used to be higher, but in the 1800’s a gunpowder factory built on top blew up — Twice. The explosion knocked off the top of the hill.

 TPL’s land deal stipulates that the current owner will be responsible for removing all the current structures and cleaning up the site.

“They’ll probably find some gunpowder residue from the factory,” said Cheasty, with a laugh. “But that’s not, I mean, compared to the toxics we contend with today, that’s easy-peasy.”

Of course, the biggest hurdle is the cost. TPL has agreed to pay $175 million for the property. Sutton said they have until December of next year to raise the money, seeking a combination of public funding and private donations.  

There are no solid plans yet about what the park will include, but some land will be allowed to return to its original state as a wetland, acting as a natural defense against the sea-level rise that could threaten I-80 in years to come.

Even if all goes well, it could take years for the park to open to the public, but when it does, it will undoubtedly bring Joy Kawaguchi back to the site and joy to everyone else who visits it.