A controversial construction project that’s completely overhauling busy Santa Fe Drive will be halted for at least six months while city officials try to figure out if it’s actually improving roadway conditions, the Encinitas City Council decided Wednesday.
“This specific project absolutely requires a further look,” Councilmember Luke Shaffer said after nearly 20 public speakers provided a wide range of views about the project.
Before the council’s 4-0 vote, city employees said that the logical time to pause the construction is fast-approaching.
City Engineering Department Director Jill Bankston said the contractor, Tri-Group Construction Development, Inc. of San Diego, is expected to finish some planned landscaping work, complete some roadway re-striping and install an interim, mid-block crosswalk by the end of January. Next up would be redesigning two intersection areas to improve pedestrian conditions, but that’s going to be delayed regardless for at least six months due to traffic signal equipment supply issues, she said.
The Santa Fe Drive roadway project has had a long, troubled history. The initial design, produced in spring 2020, called for one project that would overhaul all of Santa Fe Drive from McKinnon Avenue near Interstate 5 eastward to El Camino Real. It was later broken into two parts — a “western phase” from McKinnon to Evergreen Drive, and an “eastern phase” from Evergreen to El Camino — because of funding concerns, a new city staff report notes. Plans for a roundabout at Crest Drive also were eliminated at that time as a cost-cutting measure.
The problems haven’t ceased in the years since. The city rejected three sets of construction bids before ultimately picking Tri-Group for the western phase of the Santa Fe Drive project in August 2023. Construction is now costing far more than anticipated and is far behind schedule. Whether Encinitas proceeds with the additional planned work along Santa Fe Drive, it won’t be doing so with the current contractor, council members agreed Wednesday.
Council members said they wanted to assess the roadway conditions once the current work concludes in late January and then determine whether to pursue other planned project elements, including the curb bulb-outs at the two intersections — Nardo Road/MacKinnon Avenue and Bonita Drive/Windsor Road.
Project opponents have said they want the city to eliminate some of the things that have already been constructed, including removing the new back-in parking that’s been added along the roadway near San Dieguito Academy High School, eliminating the new vegetation planter boxes in this area and rethinking the new protected bike lane sections.
Both Shaffer and Councilmember Jim O’Hara noted that Santa Fe Drive is one of the city’s major roadways and a key Interstate 5 access point for commuters. They stressed that improving vehicle traffic flow along the corridor ought to be a top city priority, not bicycle routes. O’Hara also wondered why the main access point for San Dieguito students was along this roadway.
“Why are the kids even on Santa Fe?” he asked.
Shaffer, who said he isn’t a fan of kids riding electric bikes because of safety concerns, mentioned that he wasn’t keen on the project’s protected bike lanes and other vehicle-limiting features. Creating car parking spots along the north side of the roadway next to San Dieguito High School might be a better choice, he said.
Mayor Bruce Ehlers said he had concerns about whether the new vehicle lanes and the new protected bike lanes were wide enough. That comment led Councilmember Joy Lyndes, who has supported the project in the past, to ask the city’s fire chief whether the lanes were wide enough for emergency vehicles. Fire Chief Josh Gordon said fire vehicles have been regularly driving the redesigned roadway of late and “we’ve had no negative feedback on the width of the lanes or the turning radius.”
Prior to the November election, which gave the city a new mayor and two new council members, Encinitas had a council majority that tended to favor bicycle and pedestrian projects over ones that promoted vehicle commuters, arguing that slowing vehicle traffic would encourage people to shift to using bikes and walking.
At Wednesday’s meeting, state Sen. Catherine Blakespear — a former Encinitas elected official who backed the Santa Fe redesign when she was mayor two years ago — said she thought the community members who oppose the now-under-construction project would actually change their views once the work is done. That’s what happened with the Cardiff rail trail and the Coast Highway protected bike lanes, she said.
Her comments that the Coast Highway project was “working great” caused some project opponents to vocalize their disagreement, and that led the mayor to tell the crowd, “let’s be polite.”
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