Encinitas council directs staff to pursue Option B for Santa Fe Drive west after hours of debate

Encinitas City Council voted 4–1 on Nov. 7 to direct staff to pursue "Option B" for the Santa Fe Drive Western phase, a design that would keep separated bike lanes on the north side while converting south-side bike space to a buffered on-street lane adjacent to parallel parking. Council members said they want additional engineering refinements before construction and asked staff to return with detailed designs.

The council meeting opened with a staff presentation from Dan Nutter, the city’s director of engineering, and Matt Badowski, principal engineer and capital-improvements manager. Nutter introduced the item as “direction on the design revision options for and completion of the Santa Fe Drive Western phase,” noting the budget account CS19E and that several elements of the corridor remain incomplete. Badowski reviewed the corridor, describing existing separated bike lanes near San Diego Academy, recent sidewalk and stormwater work, two intersections that were descoped from the original contract, and the segment east of Bonita Windsor where the planned westbound bike lane was not installed.

Why the decision matters: the corridor runs from Interstate 5 to El Camino Real and directly serves San Diego Academy and nearby schools. Staff told the council it has roughly $4 million available for the corridor. The three design options presented carried differing tradeoffs of parking capacity, bicycle separation and cost: Option A would retain physically separated bike lanes both sides and yield an estimated 41–44…