ENCINITAS — Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a state budget measure greatly limiting the city’s ability to remove protected bicycle lanes along Santa Fe Drive, prompting Mayor Bruce Ehlers to raise potential legal objections as the city considers its next steps.
Newsom signed Senate Bill 114 on Sept. 18, enacting an Encinitas-specific provision that state Sen. Catherine Blakespear, D-Encinitas, added in the closing days of the legislative session.
The provision attaches new conditions to $3.09 million in state funding awarded to Encinitas in 2023 for the Santa Fe Drive Corridor Improvements Project. The legislation bars the city from removing or modifying the protected bicycle lanes for five years after the project’s completion and imposes conditions on their removal for another 10 years.
The restrictions directly affect the City Council’s planned redesign of the roadway near San Dieguito Academy, including removal of the south-side barrier-protected bicycle lane.
SB 114 is part of the state’s budget trailer bill process, in which lawmakers enact legislation to implement spending decisions and amend state law.
Rather than establishing a new annual budget, SB 114 amends the Budget Acts of 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, covering the state’s 2022-23 through 2025-26 fiscal years. The measure revises appropriations and other provisions in those earlier spending plans.
For Encinitas, the state awarded funding for the Santa Fe redesign in 2023. The new law adds restrictions to that previously approved appropriation, even though the city has already used the money to complete the western segment of Santa Fe Drive.
The provision applies specifically to the Santa Fe Drive project rather than establishing statewide restrictions on bicycle lane removal.
During the first five years after the project’s completion, Encinitas cannot remove or modify the protected bicycle lanes. From five to 15 years after completion, the city can remove all or part of the bikeway only if it repays the full $3.09 million and demonstrates that the changes would result “in equal or greater safety, accessibility, and mobility for nonmotorized users.”
The five- and 15-year periods run from the project’s completion, rather than from the original funding award or the date Newsom signed the bill.
As a budget-related measure, SB 114 took effect immediately upon enactment.
Blakespear added the Santa Fe Drive language Aug. 28, ahead of an Aug. 31 Senate vote that passed along party lines and a Sept. 1 Assembly vote that passed unanimously, according to CalMatters. Identical language appeared in the Assembly counterpart, AB 114, which died on the Senate floor.
Budget trailer bills can pass by a simple majority under changes California voters approved through Proposition 25 in 2010. Critics argue the process allows significant policy changes to be inserted late in a legislative session, leaving little time for public scrutiny.
Proposition 54, approved in 2016, requires a bill’s final language to be publicly available online for at least 72 hours before lawmakers vote on it.
On Aug. 29, Encinitas submitted a letter requesting Newsom use his line-item veto authority to reject the Santa Fe Drive provision. The city argued that the restrictions were not part of the original funding agreement and amounted to retroactive legislation targeting a single municipal project.
“When the City accepted the appropriation and when the City entered into contracts with Caltrans for the project, there were no stipulations attached to accepting the funding,” the city’s letter states. “The amendments … three years after the appropriation … put the City and our residents in an impossible position.”
Ehlers told The Coast News this week that city officials had identified three potential legal issues and were consulting with the city’s legal team about next steps. Among his concerns was a policy directive restricting roadway changes in a budget bill.
“It really smacked of desperation,” Ehlers said of Blakespear’s decision to insert the Santa Fe Drive provision in broader budget-related legislation.
Ehlers compared the move to Blakespear’s earlier effort through SB 569, which initially addressed homeless encampments. On June 11, she used a procedure known as “gut and amend” to replace that bill’s contents with statewide restrictions on changes to bicycle infrastructure.
The city opposed the amended SB 569, which reached the Assembly floor but was moved to the inactive file Aug. 31 without receiving a final vote.
However, unlike SB 569, the provision in SB 114 applies directly to the city’s previously awarded Santa Fe Drive funding.
“A former mayor of Encinitas is trying to force her will on a duly elected council,” Ehlers previously told The Coast News. “My problem is the subversive nature of her tactics.”
After the governor signed the bill, Ehlers again accused Blakespear of using legislative procedures to avoid public scrutiny.
“This is far from over,” he said.
Blakespear, who served as Encinitas mayor from 2016 to 2022, helped secure the state funding after winning her Senate seat. She has defended the restrictions as a safeguard for a state-funded safety project.
“The idea that we should improve, not remove, remains the same,” she previously told The Coast News. “The (Encinitas) City Council majority’s proposed removal of the barrier-protected bike lane will unquestionably reduce safety along that corridor and put bicyclists back alongside traffic, protected only by a white line.”
Construction of the western segment began in January 2024 and finished in April 2025. The project narrowed vehicle lanes to 10 feet, added back-in angled parking and installed separated bicycle lanes, along with pedestrian improvements and traffic-calming measures.
After completion, some residents and city officials raised concerns about congestion, emergency vehicle access, parking and conflicts among motorists, cyclists and pedestrians.
The City Council voted 4-1 in November 2025 to pursue changes, including removing the south-side barrier-protected bicycle lane, replacing back-in parking with parallel spaces and widening vehicle lanes to 11 feet. The reconstruction is expected to cost more than $3 million.
The council voted 4-1 again in June 2026 to continue designing the changes after reviewing plans at the 50% design stage. The redesign would retain the separated westbound bicycle path on the north side of Santa Fe Drive.
Blakespear previously said she would not oppose other roadway changes as long as the protected bicycle lanes remained.
“I would not interfere with their desire to make other changes to the road as long as the barrier-protected bike lanes remained,” she said. “But removing them and returning the roadway to a less safe condition after using state General Fund money that I requested is something I would fight.”
