San Francisco Live Cam

The San Francisco waterfront offers a variety of open spaces - parks, plazas, walkways, and a waterfront promenade - where visitors can enjoy outdoor activities and stunning views of the City and the Bay. Several new major open spaces are planned or under construction. The following are existing open spaces, listed from north to south.

Aquatic Park - Bordered by the Hyde Street Pier on the east and the Municipal Pier on the west, Aquatic Park is a protected lagoon on San Francisco Bay. The sandy beach has been used for recreation and swimming for over 100 years. A Victorian-style park, with lighting and benches, provides a pleasant connection between the waterfront and the cable car turnaround at Hyde and Beach Streets. Street musicians and vendors frequently line the Beach Street boundary.

San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park - The National Park Service manages two major visitor attractions in the vicinity of Aquatic Park. The Maritime Museum is housed in the Aquatic Park Bathhouse at the foot of Van Ness Avenue. The Hyde Street Pier offers maritime exhibits and tours of several historic ships, on the east side of Aquatic Park.

Fisherman's Wharf Public Open Space - The "UnderWater World" Aquarium has constructed four new viewing plazas, a large bayside plaza by the aquarium focused on a Bay exhibit, and an upper level deck that is cantilevered over the Bay. Pier 41 is a public access pier offering a Bay information exhibit, fishing areas, and sea lion viewing. To the west, a boardwalk and sidewalk allows visitors to walk along the perimeter of the Inner Harbor. Public access areas also exist on portions of Pier 43, 43-1/2, and Pier 45 near the submarine USS Pampanito. Visitors can take ferries from Pier 43-1/2 to Alcatraz, Angel Island, Sausalito, and Tiburon.

Ferry Building Plaza - An outdoor plaza behind the Ferry Building contains public art, seating and landscaped areas adjacent to the waterfront. Commuter ferries run between this part of the San Francisco waterfront and Alameda, Oakland, Vallejo, and Tiburon.

Rincon Park - The waterfront between Howard and Folsom Streets currently contains tidal steps and a bayfront promenade; an expanded inland park adjacent to the promenade is planned.

South Beach - The South Beach Harbor has continuous public access along the shoreline around the marina, on the east side of Pier 38 and on and around Pier 40. The first phase of a proposed five acre park has been developed adjacent to the marina with lawn areas, benches, and public art.

Agua Vista Park - Agua Vista is a small landscaped park and fishing pier on the east side of Terry A. Francois Boulevard in the heart of Mission Bay, near boat clubs and Kelly's Mission Rock restaurant, with fascinating views of adjacent ship repair operations.

Warm Water Cove Warm Water Cove is a small landscaped park and fishing pier at the foot of Twenty-fourth Street.

Heron's Head Park - Heron's Head Park is a 25-acre peninsula located at the foot of Cargo Way, off of Third Street Heron's Head Park is a 25-acre peninsula located at the foot of Cargo Way, off of Third Street. The Port created this land, formerly known as Pier 98, in the 1970s by placing fill in the bay with the intention of supporting maritime operations. Although its original purpose was never realized, Heron's Head Park has become home to acres of tidal salt marsh, housing shorebirds and other wildlife. Walking trails offer great opportunities to view wetlands and their inhabitants as well as some of the Port's working waterfront.

The Port welcomes surrounding schools and communities to visit and be a part of this exciting new park on the southern waterfront. We offer a variety of free educational and public participation programs to schools and community groups, including in-class slide show presentations and field trips for all ages and interests.

The Port of San Francisco's Waterfront Land Use Plan, adopted by the Port Commission in 1997, governs land use policy for waterfront lands under jurisdiction of the Port of San Francisco - a 7-1/2 mile band that extends from Fisherman's Wharf to India Basin.

The Waterfront Plan is guided by seven goals that together enable the Port to achieve the Waterfront Plan's overarching vision of reuniting the City with its waterfront.

Plan Highlights

In recognition of the public's desire for a rational plan for the Port's maritime activities along the Bay, the Waterfront Plan provides for the long-term land use needs of each of the Port's maritime or "water-dependent activities" - cargo, ship repair, fishing , passenger cruises, ferries and excursion boats, recreational boating and other activities which require a waterfront location to accomplish their basic function. Based on information gathered during extensive public workshops with maritime industry representatives, the Plan reserves approximately two-thirds of the Port's property to meet these needs.

For properties not needed exclusively for maritime activities, the Waterfront Plan identifies other activities which can thrive in a setting where maritime use, open space, and public access also occur. In these locations, new pier-side commercial uses which bring day and nighttime activities to the waterfront, such as assembly and entertainment, retail, restaurants and museums, are strongly encouraged. To achieve a balance of uses and encourage connections between landside and waterside activities, many Port sites are organized into "Mixed Use Opportunity Areas" which usually include piers and adjacent inland "seawall" lots.

The development of major new commercial uses on piers, particularly north of China Basin, will provide opportunities to establish a PortWalk, a new way to enjoy the sights and sounds of the waterfront, by extending public access onto piers and integrating it with pedestrian improvements and open spaces along The Embarcadero.

Waterfront Design and Access Element

Over the past several years, fish processors have moved into 108,000 square feet of fish processing facilities completed in 1995 at Pier 45, and a new 68-berth Hyde Street Fishing Harbor completed in 2001. Both of these state-of-the-art facilities are designed and operated to meet the highest water quality and environmental standards.

Northeast Waterfront

The Northeast Waterfront is part of a former maritime and industrial district which has successfully evolved into a vibrant urban neighborhood. A few of the adjacent Port piers continue to support cargo shipping support operations.

Any new, mixed-use pier development will include commercial recreation activities along with excursion boats, cruise ships, or other maritime uses and public access activities which appeal to the local and regional population. In addition, the Waterfront Plan designates a site in the center of the Northeast Waterfront, at the foot of Pier 27, for a major public open space, the Northeast Wharf Plaza.

South Beach/China Basin

New activities on inland sites should incorporate local-serving businesses or amenities to help provide a transition, where necessary, between larger-scale waterside attractions and residential neighborhoods.

Southern Waterfront

The Waterfront Plan promotes expansion of cargo and maritime support uses on 206 acres in the Southern Waterfront that are already developed, but greatly underutilized, for such uses.

In the meantime, interim uses are allowed to generate revenues urgently needed to subsidize Port operations until the sites are needed for expansion of cargo operations. Also, revenues can be generated on three sites not needed for cargo expansion.

Remarkably, the Southern Waterfront's industrial activities are interspersed with natural habitat, habitat restoration, and public access and recreation areas. The Waterfront Land Use Plan supports preservation of these resources and additional public access improvements compatible with the continuation of cargo and industrial maritime uses.

The Waterfront Planning Process

The Port's Waterfront Plan is the product of a seven-year, citizen-led land use planning effort.

Proposition H, passed by San Francisco voters in 1990, required preparation of a land use plan for the Port's piers and properties nearest the shore. To ensure a comprehensive plan, the Port Commission extended the planning area to include all Port properties and created the Waterfront Plan Advisory Board to recommend a land use plan for Port Commission adoption. In developing the Plan, the Port Commission and Advisory Board held more than 100 public meetings and participated in numerous meetings of neighborhood and community groups during which they discussed and carefully considered maritime industry needs, waterfront regulations, community concerns, surrounding land uses, and financial conditions which affect Port lands.

Throughout the public planning process, the diverse citizenry of San Francisco described the waterfront of their dreams. Some called for maritime industry and commerce. Others called for new recreation and thriving business activities, for places to eat and drink, run errands, work, rent a bike, launch a dingy, or to take refuge on a windy and foggy summer day. Still others called for quiet and restful places to enjoy the nature and beauty of the Bay. Most called for all of these places. The Plan represents the public's consensus about how to achieve these dreams and to reunite the City with its spectacular waterfront.

The Port maintains regular community contact and participation in all of its planning and development efforts through its various Advisory Groups. Comprised of residents from the waterfront community and representatives from business, maritime, design, industry, the environment, and other stakeholder groups, the Advisory Groups serve two primary functions. First, Advisory Groups are formed to help the Port draft Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for all new, major waterfront development projects. Some Advisory Groups remain active past the initial RFP stage, and meet regularly to advise Port staff on projects within their subarea of the waterfront. The Port also forms Advisory Groups to advise staff on focused issues affecting the entire waterfront, such as design review, water quality, or maritime commerce. Together, these Advisory Groups allow the Port to actively and continuously involve the entire community in waterfront planning and development projects.