A brand new Mission Bay park is surrounded by fences — locked up and off limits to the community — even though work on the park was finished months ago. The reason? Well, it's complicated, of course, but CBS 5 reports that a big factor in the park remaining closed to families is that the Board of Supervisors hasn't formally approved it yet.

The Mission Bay Children's Park needs to be approved by the Board, something which strangely has not happened even though the park has been fully built, and then according to the channel there must a review period. That, and the fact that construction work is still happening on an adjacent road, has created enough red tape that families are not allowed inside.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this extremely delayed opening has some neighbors feeling frustrated. “The first opening date we heard was November,” Mission Bay resident Beth Roy told the channel. Neighbor Danielle Swaney says that she was told "it would be opening in January," and that she's not the only one confused at the delay. “My daughter asks me every day if I can go open it with scissors,” related Swaney.

One neighbor decided to take action, and on a February day used bolt cutters to break the lock. As evidenced by a photo posted to Nextdoor, the community took advantage of the unexpected opening.

“We got a weekend to play,” Swaney said. “The place was flooded with kids and parents. It was amazing.”

According to the Mission Bay Development Group, blame for the delay in opening the Mission Bay Children's Park lies not with the Board, but with city regulations requiring that work on surrounding streets be completed before the park can open. "The City of San Francisco is currently working closely with the developer to complete construction and acceptance of the streets fronting the park (Long Bridge and China Basin)," a statement reads. "These streets must meet the city of San Francisco's requirements prior to park opening to ensure safe paths of travel to and from the park."

The new target opening timeframe is late summer of this year.

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