Lake Merced
Lake / park
Lake Merced (lake / park, run by the Recreation and Park Department): $2.6M paid to contractors for work here, $250.4M budgeted for its department in FY2025, 2,161 employees on the payroll, 4 capital projects, 10 city documents at the Internet Archive, every figure linked to its source. Lake Merced's archive record is dominated by water and environmental studies. A 1999 watershed sanitary survey maps potential pollution sources; a 1998 baseline inventory catalogs the lake's soils, vegetation, wildlife and fisheries; a 1993 water-resource planning study and a 1990s groundwater master plan track its surface elevation and water levels; and a 1998 memorandum weighs alternatives to raise the lake, costed at $2,200,000, $8,200,000 and $3,900,000, alongside a 2001 Vista Grande diversion study. A 1973 waste-water master plan sites a large treatment plant at Lake Merced, and a 1965 annual report logs fishing-permit revenue and float repairs. Operated by the Recreation and Park Department, whose FY2025 budget line totals about $250M. Source: SF Controller open data and the Internet Archive.
Wikimedia Commons · Isabell Schulz · CC BY 2.0Lake Merced's archive record is dominated by water and environmental studies. A 1999 watershed sanitary survey maps potential pollution sources; a 1998 baseline inventory catalogs the lake's soils, vegetation, wildlife and fisheries; a 1993 water-resource planning study and a 1990s groundwater master plan track its surface elevation and water levels; and a 1998 memorandum weighs alternatives to raise the lake, costed at $2,200,000, $8,200,000 and $3,900,000, alongside a 2001 Vista Grande diversion study. A 1973 waste-water master plan sites a large treatment plant at Lake Merced, and a 1965 annual report logs fishing-permit revenue and float repairs. Operated by the Recreation and Park Department, whose FY2025 budget line totals about $250M.
1 Harding Rd · City-owned · 8,100 sq ft · 4 buildings on site · parcel 7283004 · District 7 · City Facilities registry
What the City actually paid, across 2 contractors. Contractors big enough to have their own page are linked; the rest are named only.
Run by the Recreation & Parks, whose whole-department budget is $250.4M across 2,161 staff (FY2025) — citywide, not this place’s own. The City does not publish a running cost per building.
A 1998 engineering evaluation of ways to raise the lake's water level, scoring each alternative and costing them over a ten-year period.
Feasibility evaluation of alternatives to raise Lake Merced : draft ↗Internet Archive — San Francisco Public Library partnership scansA 1993 study for the Water Department reviewing existing data on how the lake is used and on its water quality.
Lake Merced water resource planning study ↗Internet Archive — San Francisco Public Library partnership scansThe Public Utilities Commission's baseline survey of what actually lives at the lake — vegetation types, wildlife, special-status species and fish observations back to 1949.
Lake Merced 1998 baseline natural resources inventory · 1998 ↗Internet Archive — San Francisco Public Library partnership scansA 1999 survey for the Public Utilities Commission identifying what could pollute the lake, prepared as part of the draft comprehensive management plan and recommending how to trace contamination back to its source.
Lake Merced watershed sanitary survey · 1999 ↗Internet Archive — San Francisco Public Library partnership scans
See 6 more documents
A 1985 history of the Municipal Water Department, covering the Spring Valley Water Works era that shaped the city's peninsula watersheds.
San Francisco water & power : a history of the Municipal Water Department and Hetch Hetchy System · 1985 ↗Internet Archive — Democracy's Library- Vista Grande diversion feasibility evaluation / prepared for City and County of San Francisco, City of Daly City, County of San Mateo ; prepared by CH2M Hill and the Duffey Company ↗Internet Archive — San Francisco Public Library partnership scans
- San Francisco groundwater master plan : draft / prepared by San Francisco Water Department ↗Internet Archive — San Francisco Public Library partnership scans
A 1995 groundwater master plan examining changes in Lake Merced's surface elevation and the case for retaining local groundwater.
San Francisco groundwater master plan : preliminary draft · 1995 ↗Internet Archive — Democracy's Library- San Francisco master plan for waste water management · 1973 ↗Internet Archive — San Francisco Public Library partnership scans
The final report of the PUC Infrastructure Task Force (2000-2002) on the commission's capital programme and its deferred projects.
San Francisco Public Utilities Infrastructure Task Force : final report : June 1, 2000-June 17, 2002 · 2000 ↗Internet Archive — Democracy's Library
