A much-debated beautification plan for Leucadia's portion of Coast Highway 101 may compromise fire truck access, said one resident who has been a firefighter in the Los Angeles area for two decades.
"To me, it looks very problematic," Los Angeles fire Engineer David Smith said Thursday.
Smith, who lives on Leucadia's El Portal Street, has been going door to door collecting signatures from dozens of people who support his position.
His goal, he said, is to eliminate one of the proposed beautification options, arguing that it doesn't meet city width standards for major roads and will increase firefighters' response times to emergency calls.
The city's fire chief disagrees.
Chief Mark Muir said Thursday that the Encinitas Fire Department has reviewed the various beautification options put forward by project planners and deemed them acceptable.
Option 4A --- the one Smith would like eliminated ---- is the project proponents' preferred choice for the two-mile stretch between A Street and La Costa Avenue.
It calls for leaving the two southbound lanes, but removing one of the two northbound lanes.
The extra space would allow the addition of traffic roundabouts, more streetside parking, better pedestrian walkways and widened bike lanes.
The problem is that it doesn't provide a 24-foot-wide northbound road area as required under Encinitas codes, Smith said.
Muir confirmed that the road width would be 4 feet less than the city's ideal, but said the proposed 20-foot-wide stretch, which includes an 8-foot-wide bike lane, would meet state standards.
Asked if he thought a fire truck would have trouble moving through the reworked area, Muir responded, "To me, that's not even a question. We can do it."
Parking within the proposed bike lane area would be banned, so vehicles could temporarily pull into that area if a fire truck needs to get by, Muir added.
The 20-foot width also is consistent with the standards other San Diego cities are using for traffic-calming projects, he said.
He added that city codes give him the option of granting exemptions to the city's 24-foot standard if he believes fire safety issues aren't compromised.
The streetscape effort aims to slow traffic speeds in the area, and that may have an added benefit of reducing traffic accidents, he said.
However, he is not keen on anything narrower than 20 feet.
"They wanted to make it less and we said ... 'No, this is where we draw the line at," Muir said.
The Streetscape Project is a joint planning effort by the city and the Leucadia Highway 101 Main Street Association.
Balancing the beautification efforts with residents' desires to retain the area's "funky" character has proved tricky.
Past planning efforts have faced many criticisms, but in recent months supporters have said they're moving closer to a community consensus.
Tentative plans call for the City Council to review the beautification options and pick one at a Jan. 13 meeting at City Hall.
Call staff writer Barbara Henry at 760-901-4072.
Correction:
This article has been corrected to reflect that the proposal to overhaul Leucadia's section of Coast Highway 101 is identified as Option 4A in project planning documents. The story originally stated that the plan's name was Option 4D.
