Imagine strolling, running or cycling across the new Bay Bridge East Span to Yerba Buena Island, or indulging your wanderlust as you watch the freighters enter and leave the Port of Oakland carrying the world’s goods, or just relaxing in the park and basking in the beauty of the San Francisco Bay.

The Gateway Park Working Group is a consortium of nine agencies working together to make this vision a reality and they want the Oakland community to be part of the plan. The first public meeting about the project will be held Thursday.

“Just how we realize the tremendous promise of Gateway Park is now in the hands of the community,” said Rod McMillan, director of bridge oversight and operations with the Bay Area Toll Authority, and chairman of the Gateway Park Working Group. 

“We welcome people to join us as we figure out how to transform this unique and challenging site into a remarkable new park," he said. "The workshop will help people get to know the site, tackle its challenges and form a vision for a magnificent new Bay destination.”

Planned to cover approximately 200 acres, the site's boundaries are Interstate 80 to the north, San Francisco Bay and Oakland Outer Harbor to the south and west, and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks to the east.  Gateway Park will be a destination on the Bay Trail's 500-mile bicycle and walking path around San Francisco Bay, the launch point to cross the new East Span from Oakland to Yerba Buena Island by bicycle or foot and a gateway to Oakland and the East Bay.

More than 10 years ago, state, city and regional agencies identified a unique chance to create a park at the base of the East Span.  From February to September, the Gateway Park Working Group will agree on the goals, activities and early design concepts culminating in a Project Study Report.  This report will outline the ideas and steps needed to create the Park.  With the East Span targeted for completion in 2013, the Gateway Park Working Group wants to use this time to design a park worthy of the site’s extraordinary character.

The Gateway Park Working Group includes representatives from the Bay Area Toll Authority, Caltrans, the California Transportation Commission, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, the East Bay Regional Park District, the City of Oakland, the Port of Oakland, The East Bay Municipal Utility District and the Association of Bay Area Governments’ Bay Trail Project.

The Gateway Park Workshop will be held Thursday, Feb. 25, from 5 to 9 pm in the Joseph P. Bort MetroCenter Auditorium at 101 Eighth St. Doors will open at 5 pm, light refreshments will be provided and presentations will begin at 6:30. Information about the Gateway Park site and the new Bay Bridge East Span will be on display. The MetroCenter is located across from the Lake Merritt BART Station.  All are welcome to attend this workshop; RSVP’s are appreciated.

RSVP to the workshop here, e-mail contact@BayBridgeGatewayPark.org or call 510-817-5988.

For more information on Gateway Park e-mail John Goodwin with BATA at jgoodwin@mtc.ca.gov or call 510-817-5862; or Bart Ney with Caltrans at bart_ney@dot.ca.gov or call 510-286-7165.