Comments to CCC Regarding Leucadia 101 Streetscape LCP Amendments
August 8, 2018 California Coastal Commission Meeting
Agenda No. W18f
City of Encinitas LCP Amendment LCP-6-ENC-18-0034-1
Doug Fiske
I oppose the project.
I support denial of the amendments.
California Coastal Commissioners,
I urge the commission to reject the proposed
amendments outright.
The city of Encinitas has pursued the
ill-conceived Leucadia 101 Streetscape project the amendments would allow for
about 12 years. If it were a good, legal project, it would have been
implemented long ago. The city has wasted millions of dollars on a project that
the majority of residents don’t want and that would violate the Coastal Act.
If the commission were to approve the amendments
with the modifications the staff suggested and the city were to pursue
achieving those modifications, the traffic reports would inevitably show that
the project would be inconsistent with the Coastal Act in these respects:
• It would restrict beach access by reducing a
four-lane roadway to a two-lane roadway and by stuffing it with roundabouts,
four of which would be in the first public road. It would make the current
traffic jams more frequent and worse.
• It would increase transit time through the
Leucadia 101 corridor individually and, if Carlsbad and Oceanside were to implement
similar projects, cumulatively.
In both respects, the effect would be to
restrict public access to and enjoyment of the coast.
I’ve lived in Encinitas for 49 years. For 21 of
those, I’ve lived west of 101 and north of Leucadia Boulevard. I worked in
Carlsbad for 15 years. Carlsbad, Leucadia and Encinitas 101 were my commute
route. Cumulatively, I’ve driven, biked and walked the route thousands of
times. I know the traffic patterns 24/7/365.
Anybody with driving experience and a lick of
common sense knows that a four-lane road accommodates heavy traffic better than
a two-lane road. Widening roads lets traffic flow better. Narrowing roads
congests traffic.
The traffic study the city commissioned was done
in April 2015. It omitted summer traffic, so its results have no validity. If
the city commissions an inclusive, truly objective traffic study, it will inevitably
show the current frequent congestion, especially when nearby I-5 backs up. If
the study projects the current situation into the future, including reduction
from four lanes to two and addition of six roundabouts, it will inevitably show
frequent, unacceptable LOS E and F levels.
Parking is another thorny issue in the Leucadia
101 corridor. There is nowhere near enough parking capacity now. The project
the proposed amendments would allow would confine parking on the east side of
Leucadia 101 to three parking bays. It would prevent east-side parking anywhere
else. That would reduce the corridor’s parking capacity, thereby restricting
public access to and enjoyment of the coast.
Setting a bad precedent is an overriding issue.
If the commission were to approve the amendments with the suggested
modifications and the city were to achieve those conditions and implement the
project, that would mean any coastal city could make Highway 101 anything it
wanted. Trends and whims would potentially be indulged. There would be no more
iconic, historic Highway 101.
I respectfully urge the commission to deny the proposed
amendments outright for the reasons I have stated.
Doug Fiske
West of 101
Leucadia
