Encinitas City Council members on Wednesday, Feb. 20, rejected an attempt by two regional agencies to force a major redesign of the municipality’s plan to overhaul Highway 101 as it runs through the northern part of town.
[...]
Planners with the regional transportation agency — the San Diego Association of Governments — and the North County Transportation District — which has authority over the railroad right-of-way adjacent to the highway, had other ideas
After the approximately $30 million project recently received council approval, association officials issued a letter last week requesting a redesign of the blueprint for the east side of the plan encompassing northbound 101 and adjacent improvements.
The proposed revisions, the letter states, are needed because of plans to add a second railroad track that can only be located east of the existing track. Also a drainage ditch is proposed to accommodate flooding that occurs east of the rails along Vulcan Avenue.
As a result, officials contend, SANDAG’s coastal rail trail project through Leucadia must be rerouted to the west side, forcing dramatic revisions to the city’s streetscape concept.
Friday, February 22, 2019
Council battles SANDAG and NCTD on Leucadia Streetscape
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Short term those folks who oppose Streetscape get a reprieve...long term those who support Streetscape get a better design and product. Quite a win-win, don'cha think?
ReplyDeleteShort and long term, hundreds of thousands of taxpayer money have and will be spent fixing a plan residents told a closed-ear council was unworkable.
DeleteKind of a lose-lose if you actually live here. Our city workers are far too highly paid to produce such shoddy work and our council too boastful of the great job they're doing to have overseen it.
Or maybe they didn't? Gosh, just imagine a world where the council took a nap while their "professional staff" threw our money away. I can.
So now it's going to be workable, and integrated into a larger plan - what's wrong with that? Better now than after it's built, eh?
DeleteBetter to have a skilled staff who are not allowed by our electeds to rip us off. As several speakers stated on both sides of the issue: why wasn't our city talking to NCTD and SANDAG if the two agencies have a say in whether this gets built? That's what's better. Knowing how to do your job, that's what's better.
DeleteWhat is the cost of the work and the rework and we still don't know what the plan is? Unacceptable.
Don't be like Blakespear and be in such a hurry to claim victory, because you're nowhere close putting lipstick on this pig.
Wow, 3:51, you're a few turnips short. It's already built, at least along the San Elijo corridor. Do you think bikers are going to hopscotch back and forth from east side to west side, or do as they've always done and clog PCH with their spandex mobs? Workable? Hardly.
Delete3 words - Scrap the Plan!
ReplyDeleteKeystone Kops Kouncil's kar blew 4 flats!
DeleteThe larger plan is to trench the double tracks.
ReplyDeleteEncinitas clowns and their lip-stick on a pig plan (streetscape) is a moronic plan supported by pea brained gomers with their own interest in mind.
I would immediately bow down at the altar of Blakespear if they managed to grade-separate the tracks as in Solana Beach. But they won't. Too high a cost compared to rinky-dink pedestrian underpasses and far too visionary.
DeleteWith what's been wasted so far and will continue to be wasted on plans that don't work and rinky-dink underpasses that are way too far apart to help, the city could have gone a long way toward paying for trenching the doubled tracks.
ReplyDeleteWho ever thought Streetscape was a good idea in the first place? Did the city ever conduct a poll of the merchants and residents in that affected corridor, as to what they thought about it?
ReplyDeleteNo, the 8,000 residents who live west of the 101 and the rest of the city that might like to access the beach were not consulted. This is a staff, Norby-driven "revitalization" that can't manage to hide the fact that it's all about more development.
DeleteJust seeing Norby sitting with the planning staff like he belongs there is disgusting. He was given the boot once, but isn't it just like Blakespear and more likely Kranz to sneak him back in through the back door.
Yo Tony, how much is he costing us this time??
Just don't let him "facilitate" any so-called workshops. He'll put words in your mouth you never said and he'll do it with a straight face, too.
The City can buy now obsolete High Speed rail tracks from the State's kaput project. Bicyclists can peddle along those platforms!
DeleteThe whole "let's fight NCTD and SANDAG effort is silliness. IT'S THEIR REAL ESTATE! How exactly will the city "fight" that?
ReplyDeleteTry building a house here and then answer your own question, 8:30. Real estate address and jurisdiction -- if the address read Encinitas, then Encinitas can say what is done with "THEIR REAL ESTATE!"
DeleteI was at the meeting when it was decided to put rail trails on both sides of the track. I sat there thinking how in the world will it all fit in. Streetscape lane reduction was rushing ahead without a thought about double tracking, even though the first section of doubling tracking was done in Cardiff when Jerome Stocks was on the council. And special bike lanes had already been added to streetscape.
ReplyDeleteIt seemed no one at the city had bothered to walk the NCTD right-of-way from Encinitas Blvd. to La Costa avenue to get an idea of what was feasible. The city didn't dialogue with SANDAG on all the details.
NCTD owns the right-of-way and controls what happens. The best the city can do is replace the drainage ditch on the east side with underground piping and put the trail on top. A figure of $15 million was mentioned. So let's see. $30+ million for streetscape, $15+ million for buried drainage, another easy 20% for cost overruns and miscalculations. SANDAG only pays for the double tracking (there is no compromise on this) and a single rail trail. We're up to $55-60 million, money that will be needed for essential infrastructure improvements to deal with the coming densification from the HEU.
Brenda suggested trails on both sides of the tracks, and the council nixed the idea.
ReplyDeleteBrenda, Brenda, Brenda. Why is she still here?
DeleteBecause she's doing the devil's work for the council.
DeleteWhat a f#*cking sh!tshow. The rail trail is 50% complete on the east side of San Elijo, and the wise leaders at city council, Blakespear and Kranz foremost among the incumbents, were drivers of a contiguous trail on the east side of the tracks to promote continuity of the path. Their opponents argued, loudly as I recall, for a west side alignment that would have upgraded the path on 101 and cost half the amount.
ReplyDeleteNow this news comes up, a no-brainer fact check that could and should have been done day one and clarifies the feasibility of west side on Vulcan while we're already east side on San Elijo. Heads should roll immediately.