A fenced, locked strip of South Berkeley that once carried freight trains has sat unused for decades while neighbors pushed for it to become a park. Now Berkeley is moving to finally build one.
The city is hiring a contractor to transform the southernmost block of the old Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway corridor, at Ward Street and Sojourner Truth Court, into a $3.2 million community hub. The project listing on Berkeley's bid portal calls for community gardens, a dog park, a children's playground with a tot cycle track, picnic areas, outdoor fitness stations, ADA-accessible pathways, lighting and drinking fountains.
The Santa Fe Railway abandoned this Berkeley corridor in the early 1980s as industrial freight along the East Bay waterfront declined. Over the following decades, the city acquired the right-of-way in pieces, and residents, inspired in part by the late landscape architect Karl Linn, planted community gardens and created informal green spaces on portions of the old trackbed. But this southernmost block remained fenced off, a missing link in what neighbors envisioned as a continuous greenway through some of Berkeley's most park-poor flatland neighborhoods.
Source: NationGraph.
South and West Berkeley have historically had less green space per capita than the hillside neighborhoods above, a disparity that environmental justice advocates have raised for years. This project is funded partly through Measure T1, the $100 million infrastructure bond Berkeley voters approved in 2016, which has faced some criticism for slow project delivery.
The conversion has not been without debate. Some housing advocates have argued that surplus public land along the corridor should be used for affordable housing given Berkeley's severe housing shortage. The city chose parks.
With bids due June 16, 2026, the city could award a contract this summer. Construction timelines have not been publicly announced.
