CARLSBAD — Last week, City Council unanimously approved trimming the number of roundabouts proposed in the Barrio and Village neighborhoods from five to one, with additional direction for staff to return with other traffic calming measures by November.
The new project will include a single roundabout, also referred to as a traffic circle, at Pine Avenue and Harding Street with a public art installation planned for the center of the circle.
Over the next three months, city staff will explore adding stop signs, speed cushions, raised crosswalks and other traffic-calming measures at the other intersections that were previously supposed to have traffic circles: Jefferson Street and Oak Avenue, Pine and Madison streets, Madison Street and Chestnut Avenue, and Chestnut Avenue and Roosevelt Street.
Staff also intends to split a $5 million federal grant secured by Rep. Mike Levin (D-San Juan Capistrano) to help pay for the project as well as the Barrio and Village lighting project. Originally, that grant dedicated $4 million to the traffic circles and $1 million to the lighting; however, staff is negotiating splitting that grant at an even $2.5 million each for both projects.
Council approved the original project in March and was due to approve a construction contract in June, but that decision was pushed back to July 29 to gather more community input from Barrio and Village residents and businesses who appeared to be divided on whether or to add the roundabouts.
Staff presented City Council with three options. Option 1 would keep the five traffic circles as originally planned, Option 2 would remove all but one traffic circle and Option 3 would eliminate all of the proposed traffic circles. In the end, City Council chose Option 2.
Much of the concern was over how many parking spaces the traffic circles would eliminate from the neighborhood.
With all five traffic circles, the project would have removed 27 parking spaces in addition to an additional 11 already set for removal under a new state “daylighting law,” which restricts parking within 20 feet of most intersections. Together, the new state law and the project would have removed 38 spaces from the neighborhoods.
The Harding and Pine traffic circle will eliminate five spaces plus two from the daylighting law.
Those who spoke in favor of traffic circles at the meeting included resident Robert Wilkinson, who acknowledged that while parking is a problem, making the streets safer was more important.
Several residents and some who work in the area noted how fast people drive through the community and how often stop signs are ignored.
“Inhibiting making the street system safer to save parking is not the way to solve the parking problem,” Wilkinson said.
Another resident, Conan White, noted he has seen people blow through stop signs multiple times in the Barrio.
Christine Davis, executive director of the Carlsbad Village Association, emphasized the importance of preserving parking in the Village neighborhood. She noted many business owners and residents supported activated flashing crosswalks and speed humps instead of traffic circles to slow down drivers.
“We need to do everything we can to preserve the parking that we do have,” she said.
Council’s decision to cut back on the roundabouts was also influenced by Carlsbad Fire Department leaders. Assistant Fire Chief Nick Ordille said the traffic circles would be “pretty tight” for ladder trucks and other fire engines to get through.
Transportation Director and City Engineer Tom Frank said the city would move forward with a three-phase plan to offset the lost parking spaces.
Fourteen parking spaces are expected to be added by the end of next month by modifying red curbs. An additional 13 parking spaces are expected to be conceptually designed by the end of the year near the Madison Street-Chestnut Avenue intersection.
The city is also looking at converting parallel parking spaces to diagonal parking on wider streets.
The revised project will keep an enhanced crosswalk proposed at the intersection of Oak Avenue and Roosevelt Street. Needed water and sewer utility improvements will also be incorporated into the traffic-calming work, according to the city.
