Our 2 Miles of Beautiful but Flawed Coastal Corridor Seeking Some Sweet TLC

Here is yesterday's Union Tribune story on the upcoming workshops to further improve the coastal corridor infrastructure. This is nice because a few years ago the discussion was all about blight and eminent domain. Now we are talking about realistic improvements that the taxpayers deserve.

Seeking roadside assistance on 101

Workshops expected to get Leucadians' input
By Angela Lau
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

October 10, 2007

ENCINITAS – Leucadians may soon have a chance to redesign the two-mile stretch of North Coast Highway 101 that passes through their community.

Tonight, the Encinitas City Council will consider whether to award a $231,000 contract to Solana Beach-based MW Peltz+Associates to create a streetscape plan for the highway.

Before putting pen to paper, the consultant is expected to hold several community workshops beginning in January or February to hear what renovations residents want along the highway from A Street to La Costa Avenue, city Planning Director Pat Murphy said.

This promises to be Encinitas' next major rejuvenation project, after spending $5.2 million for a six-block downtown streetscape project in 2002 that brought wider sidewalks, new benches, medians, street lamps, landscaping and decorative retaining walls. Lack of funds halted plans to extend that renovation an additional five blocks south.

The coast highway through Leucadia is a less cohesive commercial strip than downtown. The road is lined with restaurants, art galleries, shops, motels and empty lots on the west side, and a railroad right-of-way on the east. Sections are without sidewalks and the area typically floods during winter rains.

Roughly $4.2 million has been earmarked through fiscal year 2012-13 for the project, but Murphy expects to need more money because of rising construction costs.

“We are very excited,” said Morgan Mallory, a board member of the Leucadia 101 MainStreet Association, a nonprofit booster organization. “Oh Lordy, we were hoping we are still alive when this happens.”

He and Leucadia Town Council President Rachelle Collier said they already know what they want: slower traffic and more trees.

“We are anxious to maintain the canopy and improve the traffic here so that we do not encourage (Interstate 5) bypass traffic and maintain the rural atmosphere,” Mallory said.

“We have so much traffic that is going by our businesses we feel the vast majority of them are using 101 as a thoroughfare to get somewhere else, not to enjoy our community,” he said. “We want to create an environment that is business-and pedestrian-friendly and maintain the flavor of Leucadia.”

To reduce speeds, Mallory suggested:

Narrowing North Coast Highway 101 from four lanes to two, allowing for one lane each way.

Reducing the speed limit, currently at 40 mph.

Installing roundabouts.

Mallory also suggested solving some of Leucadia's longstanding parking problems by creating more parking on the east side of Highway 101.

Leucadians have been lobbying for safer roads for more than a decade.

Some of the community's older roads, Highway 101 included, were built for buggies, not pedestrians, the community's leaders have said. And, as cars replaced buggies, the highway became what Leucadians call a speedway.

The city has developed a growth plan for the community that is now being implemented.

The first step was taken recently when city contractors began building sidewalks on North Coast Highway 101.

Sidewalks are also being installed on Leucadia Boulevard, which connects the coast highway with El Camino Real. The city also is building roundabouts at two intersections on the boulevard to slow traffic. The sidewalks and roundabouts are expected to be completed by December.

The coast highway streetscape is meant to complement those improvements.

When the consultant finishes the design document, it will become a template for future developments, Planning Director Murphy said. Developers will be asked to implement some of the beautification and traffic requirements.

Like in downtown Encinitas, the plan could call for such things as specially designed streetlights, sidewalk art, benches, landscaping and road improvements, Murphy said.

The city will phase in its share of the North Coast Highway 101 improvements, starting with the southern half-mile section from A Street to North Court. The construction date has not been determined, Murphy said.

There are some good comments posted on the UT website on this story, click here.