SAN FRANCISCO—Community leaders and residents from San Fransisco’s west side districts announced on March 11 the filing of a lawsuit seeking an injunction against the implementation of Proposition K, a measure voters approved in November 2024 allowing authorities to close the Upper Great Highway to private vehicles and turn it into a public open recreation space.
The 2-mile stretch of the westernmost highway in San Francisco, as well as its 1.7-mile southern extension, was permanently closed March 14 to cars, as planned by San Francisco Recreation & Parks.
Prop K still allows for emergency vehicles and certain designated vehicles to use the highway.
“The point of the lawsuit is that you can’t partially close a road, and the voters don’t have the authority to close the road. It’s vested in the Legislature,” said Richard Corriea, a fourth-generation resident on the west side of San Francisco and a retired police commander, at a rally on March 11.
The complaint was filed on March 10 by attorneys James Sutton and Eli Love, and it lists as defendants the City of San Francisco, its Board of Supervisors (including five supervisors who placed Prop K onto the ballot), and its recreation department.
The lawsuit states that the supervisors involved in Prop K “ignored the state’s plenary authority over traffic control and roads and unlawfully placed a measure before San Francisco voters that was not in the voters’ power to decide.”
According to the lawsuit, Prop K violates the State Vehicle Code, and its lack of a proper environmental evaluation also violates the California Environmental Quality Act.
Among voters in San Francisco as a whole, 54.73 percent approved of Prop K, while voters in districts close to the Great Highway tended to oppose it.
More than 63 percent of voters in Sunset and Richmond districts voted no on Prop K. In addition, 56.1 percent in District 7 (Forest Hill) and 58.4 percent in District 11 (Excelsior) opposed the measure.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, 18,000 to 20,000 vehicles used the Upper Great Highway per day. The traffic level is slowly rising again, and opponents worry that the closure of the highway would cause traffic congestion and other safety issues in alternative corridors that are already crowded.
“That’s going to make it worse for our businesses, for work, for safety, for our children, for our elderly, or for us for getting around; it’s going to be discouraging for people to come here because they’ll be in traffic all the time,” Sunset District hardware store owner Albert Chow said at the rally.
“San Francisco is the most democratic city in the United States. It used to be a city about people power; it used to be a city that had very, very inclusive processes, and this is the absolute opposite,” Matt Boschetto, former District 7 supervisor candidate, told The Epoch Times.
Boschetto said many small business owners are worried, as the diverted flow of people and cars could affect their livelihoods.
“This lawsuit is our only course to right that wrong and ensure a just and due process for those most affected. This is about holding our elected officials in City Hall accountable to the laws of our state,” said Boschetto in a speech at the rally.
The opponents of Prop K also initiated a recall of District 4 Supervisor Joel Engardio, accusing him of not representing the constituents on this matter.
However, Prop K supporters have said the lawsuit has no merit.
“This lawsuit is just another in a long line of attempts by park opponents to overturn the will of San Franciscans,” Lucas Lux, president of Friends of Ocean Beach Park, said in an emailed statement on March 10. “These lawsuits continue to waste time and city resources, and they undermine the outcomes of our elections.”
Matt Boschetto, former District 7 supervisor candidate and one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Prop K, speaks at the press conference in San Francisco on March 11, 2025. Lear Zhou/The Epoch Times
