ENCINITAS — The city of Encinitas accepted a nearly $350,000 state grant last week to construct a pedestrian crossing across South Coast Highway 101 at the city’s southern border with Solana Beach, with the caveat that the project location and design may change from what was originally proposed.
The cities of Encinitas and Solana Beach have been collaborating for the past several years on designs for a Highway 101 crossing from the Harbaugh Seaside Trails park entrance to the south end of the South Cardiff State Beach parking lot.
Pedestrians can often be seen running across the highway between these two sites, with concerns rising about the potential for collisions. While the project would technically be located in Encinitas, its location along the border with Solana Beach makes it of great interest to residents of both cities.
Encinitas was granted a $349,920 Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) grant earlier this year to fund the project. The proposed design submitted last year for the grant, known as Option A, features a rectangular rapid flashing beacon and a pedestrian refuge island halfway across, resulting in a reduction in vehicle lanes.
The Encinitas City Council agreed at its Nov. 12 meeting to accept the HSIP grant for that design, but expressed strong opposition to any reduction in lanes on the 101. They said they would like to explore two other design options for the crossing, including one at a different point along Coast Highway 101, a few hundred feet away.
Changing the design would require the city to request a project scope change from Caltrans to use the grant.
“At a minimum, we need to accept that grant ASAP if we want to move forward with any of the three alternatives or a deviation thereof,” said Dan Nutter, director of engineering for Encinitas. “There is the potential that Caltrans can say no to a scope change of any kind.”
The City Council discussed two other designs, options B and C. Option B would install a pedestrian signal with short signal poles and pedestrian signal heads and would preserve two travel lanes in each direction without any reduction.
Option C would be located about 500 feet north at the intersection of Highway 101 and the South Cardiff State Beach parking lot vehicle entrance. It proposes adding a new traffic signal with a crosswalk, along with a sidewalk on the east side of the 101 connecting to the Harbaugh entrance.
The council was set to decide on the HSIP grant at its Oct. 22 meeting, but delayed the decision until November to discuss the matter with Solana Beach officials. Over the past couple of weeks, staff and officials from both cities have discussed their respective priorities for the crossing.
Several Solana Beach leaders, including City Council members and City Manager Alyssa Muto, attended the Nov. 12 meeting to advocate for continued collaboration between the two cities. They recognized that priorities on the Encinitas City Council have changed since work on the project began.
“What we’re hoping for tonight … is to just allow for that continued collaboration. I know that things have changed here in the city of Encinitas, and we want to work with the staff and with the engineers to do modifications to make all the projects and all the goals come together,” Muto said.
Solana Beach leaders are banking on Option A, as it is inextricably linked to plans for the extension of the Coastal Rail Trail that will run to the north end of the city and connect to the 101 crossing at Harbaugh.
Due to a conservation easement on the Harbaugh land that prohibits any improvements or grading, Solana Beach plans to extend the Coastal Rail Trail into the road right-of-way, narrowing a portion of the 101 down to one lane on the east side via a “road diet.”
“Solana Beach is designing the missing link between Solana Beach and Encinitas at our northern boundary. We have a goal of creating a seamless connection between the Coastal Rail Trail and the Harbaugh Seaside Trail for our pedestrians and many users within our community,” said Engineering and Public Works Director Orelia DeBraal.
Encinitas council members said they would generally oppose the “road diet,” or reduction in the number of lanes in each direction, which would be required to implement the design.
Mayor Bruce Ehlers expressed concerns about traffic backing up into Encinitas due to the lane reduction. He also said placing the Coastal Rail Trail in the right-of-way along the 101 would set a precedent for additional trail expansions into Cardiff, where it picks up again.
“I ran on a platform of no lane diets — lane-ectomies, as I call them — and the solution path we’re going down right now almost mandates we’re going to have to continue the Coastal Rail Trail on the easternmost lane and take it out all the way through Cardiff, and I don’t agree with that at all,” Ehlers said.
Design preferences varied among Encinitas council members. Ehlers, Councilmember Luke Shaffer, and Deputy Mayor Joy Lyndes said they liked Option C, although Lyndes shared some concerns about light impacts from the traffic signal on the surrounding lagoon and beach.
Council members Jim O’Hara and Marco San Antonio said a signal at that intersection is important, but that it was too much for the city to take on right now.
“I think really, if we’re going to address that intersection, once we decide how we’re going to approach that intersection with [bicycles], pedestrians, and cars, I think that’s really when we look at that intersection. I don’t think this is the time to look at that intersection,” O’Hara said.
Leaders of the Cardiff Town Council and Cardiff 101 Main Street also shared their support for Option C during public comment.
Leaders of the Nature Collective, the organization that acts as steward for the Harbaugh Trails land, and the Surfrider Foundation’s San Diego County chapter supported a crossing directly from the trail.
Overall, council members agreed, there is a lot more work and communication to be done with Solana Beach before a project design is set in stone.
“This is tricky. We’re coordinating across jurisdictions here. We both need to be on the same database, we both need to make sure the numbers work,” said Lyndes. “I don’t see a solution here that addresses all of our concerns. But I do see commitment from both cities, and I want to honor that and I want to move forward.”
Solana Beach said they share the same commitment.
“We are willing to take the time to ensure that the inevitable crossing is one that both our city councils and our constituents will be proud of, and they will use this for decades to come,” said Solana Beach Councilmember Kristi Becker. “The engineering realities and the regulatory oversight from state agencies will require that we work together on developing a project that gets our people safely to the west side of the 101.”
Work on the project goes back several years. In 2022, the two cities funded a study identifying three potential crossing options, including a pedestrian bridge over the 101 for around $2.5 million, a pedestrian tunnel beneath the highway for about $1.5 million, and a signalized crosswalk for about $500,000.
The closest pedestrian crosswalk across the 101 is at Solana Vista Drive, around a quarter mile south of the Harbaugh entrance.
Nutter said the city will bring back options B and C at around a 10% design level to give the council a better idea of how to move forward. Once the grant is fully processed in early 2026, the city will submit a scope change request to Caltrans.
