A pro-park group in San Francisco has filed a lawsuit to challenge the legality of a new ballot petition seeking to convert Sunset Dunes park back into a road during weekdays. The lawsuit alleges that the petition contains false and misleading statements and unlawfully deprived voters of their right to be sufficiently informed about what they were being asked to sign and ultimately vote on.

Background

The Great Highway has been the subject of a five-year altercation, with multiple lawsuits and the recall of a supervisor. The Friends of Sunset Dunes, a nonprofit that supports the park, has created a list of failed attempts to kill the park, with 13 items. The current lawsuit names the San Francisco director of elections as the defendant and proponents of the potential initiative measure as parties to the suit.

The lawsuit argues that the petition misrepresents its claim to restore a balanced approach that was working effectively before the creation of the park. The balanced approach was a compromise in which cars would be forced off the road starting at Friday at noon, but the would-be measure would give cars an extra six hours of road time, only closing the street at 6 p.m. on Fridays. This would remove all daylight hours of Friday afternoon, making it hard for people who work weekends or otherwise can’t use the park on weekends to have meaningful access to it.

The petition also claims that the space remains suitable for dual use, but the lawsuit argues that a part-time road closure is different from a park. Bringing private vehicles to the space under the new measure would make it hard to install any park features, such as art installations and exercise equipment. The complaint also alleges that the petition falsely claims Sunset Dunes slows emergency response times and that the Upper Great Highway was a critical coastal evacuation route.

Original reporting: Mission Local — read the source article.