Parents, teachers and area politicians urge Encinitas to preserve Santa Fe Drive changes

Cycling advocates, parents, politicians, teachers and the relatives of people who have been killed while riding bikes gathered Saturday morning next to San Dieguito High School Academy to urge Encinitas city officials to preserve the major elements of a recent, controversial overhaul of Santa Fe Drive.

The constant rallying cry at the event was, “Improve, not remove.”

Noting that the City Council is expected to consider making changes to the overhauled section of Santa Fe Drive this fall, event participants called for preserving the protected bike lanes, the lower speed limits and the diagonal parking.

“It’s important to be clear about what removal does mean,” state Sen. Catherine Blakespear said, noting that some members of the City Council have suggested they could support eliminating the protected bike lanes and changing the design of the parking.

The $4 million, recently completed renovation project, which stretches from MacKinnon Avenue and continues eastward to Evergreen, was originally envisioned as a much larger, multiple-phase project going all the way to El Camino Real, but so far only one section has been done.

The changes to that first roadway section have faced much controversy, particularly the back-in parking and narrower vehicle lane widths. The project also included new sidewalks, a mid-block pedestrian crossing island at the high school, and bike lanes that are separated from the roadway. Two intersections — Nardo Road/MacKinnon Avenue and Bonita Drive/Windsor Road — were proposed to gain new traffic signal equipment and redesigned corners with what are considered pedestrian-friendly “curb bulb-out” areas. Those items were placed on hold in December amid growing opposition to the renovation project, which by then was way over budget and way behind schedule.

Blakespear, who organized Saturday’s event, said she would prefer that Encinitas wait a year or two before reworking the first project section, saying that she would like people to get used to the changes first.

The news conference attracted several dozen project supporters, including the father of Brodee Champlain-Kingman, a 15-year-old boy who was killed while riding his e-bike to San Dieguito High School Academy in June 2023. Roy Kingman told the crowd that his son was one of hundreds of teens who use e-bikes to get to the academy and he urged people to “use your voice” to tell drivers to “slow down.”

Other participants included Encinitas City Councilmember Joy Lyndes, who represents the Cardiff area and has supported the roadway project; Emily Andrade, an Encinitas Union School District board member; Michelle Horsley, president of the San Dieguito Faculty Association; Bill Shen, who serves on the PTA’s board of directors at Capri Elementary School; and members of the advocacy groups Circulate San Diego and Families for Safe Streets San Diego.

Both Andrade and Horsley, who teaches at the nearby Sunset High School and has a son who has attended the academy, said they felt the roadway overhaul had significantly improved student safety. Andrade said she could only support “minor” changes on the overhauled section and would like the project to expand eastward to Santa Fe Drive’s intersection with El Camino Real.

Encinitas City Councilmember Jim O’Hara, who was elected to the council in November and has previously said he could support tearing out much of the roadway project, quietly watched Saturday’s event from a nearby sidewalk.

Asked by a reporter for his thoughts afterward, he said that the Santa Fe Drive corridor needs to be safe for all users — vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists — and said many people in Encinitas don’t think the overhauled portion of the roadway is safe right now. He and other members of the new council majority — a new mayor and two council members all were elected in November — have said that while they were campaigning last fall they frequently heard from people who hated then-under-construction changes on Santa Fe Drive.

Comments have died down of late; it’s no longer a frequent topic during general public comment at City Council meetings. Project proponents argue that most of the ill-feeling was due to the fact that construction activity took far longer than expected, and that people are growing to like the revamped roadway.

O’Hara said Saturday that he doesn’t agree. Just because people aren’t speaking out right now doesn’t mean they’re happy with the changes, he said.