San Francisco voters passed Prop K. The city started planning a gorgeous new waterfront park along the Marina. And now, predictably, a small group of opponents is doing everything in their power to kill it — using the state's favorite obstruction tool: CEQA.

The plan to transform the Great Highway into public green space along the Marina waterfront just cleared another hurdle, surviving a legal challenge in Superior Court earlier this year. But the opposition isn't done. They've filed an appeal, arguing — and you really can't make this up — that keeping a road open for cars is somehow better for the environment than building a park.

Let that marinate.

As one local put it: "They want to prioritize a road for cars over a park for people… because of… the environment? These people need to touch grass. Or a sand dune."

This is the CEQA playbook in its purest form. California's landmark environmental law, originally designed to protect communities from pollution and ecological destruction, has become the weapon of choice for anyone who wants to block anything, anywhere, for any reason. Want to stop housing? CEQA. Want to stop bike lanes? CEQA. Want to stop a literal park on the waterfront? Believe it or not, also CEQA.

The deeper game here is worth understanding. As one SF resident noted, this legal fight isn't really about weekend access or compromise — "their ultimate goal is a 24/7 road, not a part-time park or any of those lies they're using to collect signatures." The lawsuit is effectively an attempt to nullify what voters approved.

And that should bother you regardless of where you stand on the park itself. When a well-funded few can use procedural lawfare to overturn ballot measures, it undermines the democratic process that's supposed to give ordinary citizens a voice. You don't get to keep running the play until you get the outcome you want.

The city's legal position appears strong — a judge already swatted this down once — but appeals cost time and taxpayer money. Every dollar the city spends defending voter-approved projects in court is a dollar not going toward actually building them.

San Francisco has a nasty habit of letting process kill progress. The Marina waterfront park deserves better. So do the voters who approved it.