Encinitas accepts $350,000 crosswalk grant, but postpones site selection decision

Encinitas will accept a nearly $350,000 state grant to build a Coast Highway 101 crosswalk near the southern city limits, but the location may change from what was originally planned.

The City Council last week unanimously voted to accept the grant money, but split over which of three proposed crosswalk locations was best. Council members ultimately postponed their pick, instead deciding to have staff do partial design work for two of the options.

Partial designs might “help bring a little bit more light into the discussion,” city engineering department director Dan Nutter said as he made the suggestion.

The first of the three options — Alternative A — was the preferred option when the grant application was submitted in 2024, but that’s not the case any more. It calls for putting the crossing near the Harbaugh Seaside Trails property at the very southern city limits —  an existing, informal crossing spot where people are jumping a rope fence at a trail edge and venturing across the road to the beach. The crosswalk plan included a pedestrian refuge island and rectangular rapid flashing beacons.

In order to make Alternative A a reality, Encinitas would need to eliminate one of two vehicle lanes in each direction, city employees have said. A majority of the council members have changed since the grant application was submitted, and the current council indicated Wednesday that it could not support the proposed lane eliminations, especially given that Coast Highway is an alternative route for Interstate 5 drivers.

The second option — Alternative B — would place the crosswalk in the same spot, but keeps all four vehicle lanes, adds a pedestrian traffic light signal, and eliminates the proposed pedestrian island and flashing beacon lights.

The third one — Alternative C — moves the crosswalk location northward to the South Cardiff State Beach intersection. It adds a sidewalk along the east side of the roadway from the Solana Beach city limits to the beach entrance, in an effort to encourage Harbaugh Trail users not to use the informal crossing point. Like Alternative B, it would keep all four vehicle lanes.

A majority of the council indicated they preferred Alternative C, saying that beach parking lot intersection eventually will need a traffic light, regardless of the crosswalk plan, and this may be the safest spot for the proposed crosswalk.

“I firmly believe that for a highway like this you need a traffic light” rather than a pedestrian-activated, flashing-light crosswalk, Mayor Bruce Ehlers said.

Councilmember Luke Shaffer agreed, calling Alternative C “the safest” of the choices.

Councilmember Joy Lyndes said she would like more design information, but thought Alternative C was likely the best of the three, while Councilmember Marco San Antonio said he, too, was “leaning toward” that option.

Councilmember Jim O’Hara disagreed, saying Alternative C was a piecemeal design that wouldn’t mesh well with the council’s recently approved plans to remove the protected bike lane on the east side of the roadway north of the state beach entrance. Due to Alternative C’s proposed east-roadside sidewalk, northbound cyclists would face an awkward turn toward the right when they hit the crosswalk region, he noted. He said he preferred Alternative B.

The Encinitas crosswalk situation is complicated by the fact that Solana Beach has its own plans for a pedestrian and cyclist project in the area. Solana Beach council members and city staff attended Wednesday’s Encinitas meeting and repeated a previous request for more time to make the two projects mesh better together. They said they originally designed their project to fit with the prior Encinitas council’s Alternative A plan, but might be able to make a different one work with some adjustments.

“We need time to look at the different alternatives,” Solana Beach City Manager Alyssa Muto said.

Encinitas city employees said the state’s Transportation Department will need to sign off on the any proposed design changes in 2026 before the grant money will be released. Construction is currently estimated to occur in 2027.