Special meeting being held to consider changes to Santa Fe Drive in Encinitas

ENCINITAS, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) — Encinitas City Council is considering making some changes to an already controversial street in the city. 

"It’s controversial. It’s a contentious quarter mile section of street and parking that is unique only to this one section," said Dr. Cathy Santone of Encinitas Cosmetic Dentistry.

Santone has had a front row seat to the changes along Santa Fe Drive where her dentistry practice is located.

"Pedestrians, especially drivers, people riding bikes, they don’t know how to navigate this if they’ve never seen it before. I think it’s a dangerous situation and I think it can be improved," said Santone.

Now, Encinitas City Council is set to consider a list of improvements not long after the project was completed.

"At most, it should be evaluated longer. This seems very hasty," said Catherine Blakespear, State Senator and former mayor of Encinitas.

Blakespear is pushing back against any changes after she helped secure $3 million in funding for safety improvements along the west end of the corridor in 2023 .

"Data shows that when you have protected intersections, protected bike lanes, and you slow traffic down, the severity of crashes is less and people pay more attention. They’re looking around," said Blakespear.

"This was more for the agenda of Sacramento than it was for the people Encinitas," said Councilmember Jim O'Hara.

Meantime current councilmembers like O’Hara are moving forward with a special meeting Wednesday night to look at a list of possible modifications ranging from $1.3 to $1.9 million.

"We’ve heard from the residents, it’s their street. We got about 1,000 emails and about 900 of them were opposed to the design. I think there’s a lot of opposite of design before it was even put in," said O'Hara.

The three options on the table all widen travel lanes and do away with back-in angled parking, but present different options for how to accommodate the bike lane and parking moving forward.

Councilmember O’Hara says there is money in the budget to accommodate any changes that may be voted on Wednesday night. That special meeting starts at 6 p.m.