The Carlsbad City Council on Tuesday unanimously voted to reduce the number of planned traffic circles in the Barrio neighborhood from five to one.
It's a compromise that will preserve the $5 million federal grant for the roundabout and street lighting projects in the neighborhood.
The council had approved the project with five traffic circles in March, but pulled the item from the consent agenda at the June 24 meeting after residents raised parking concerns. The five traffic circles would have resulted in the loss of 27 parking spots, plus 11 more lost because of the new state daylighting law, which prohibits parking within 20 feet of a crosswalk at certain intersections.
“At that time, there was an appetite for traffic circles, and since then, state laws have negatively impacted our ability to plan and execute projects that solve problems,” said Councilmember Melanie Burkholder, whose district includes the Barrio.
Residents were roughly split on the issue. In an online survey conducted by the city, 51% of respondents were in favor of traffic circles and 41% opposed and 5% in favor of some but not all five circles. At the meeting, most of the speakers were in favor of the traffic circles but all agreed that some traffic calming measures are needed to reduce speeding.
“They're routinely going through at 50mph-plus, because they feel that they can,” Barrio resident Michael Hendrix said.
The Village and Barrio Master Plan, approved in 2019, calls for the addition of traffic circles and other calming measures to reduce speeding.
At the meeting, city engineer Tom Frank presented the council with three options:
- Install all five traffic circles;
- Install only one circle with other traffic calming measures; or
- Install none with only traffic calming measures.
Ultimately, the council chose option 2, which also preserves federal funding for the project. The city needs to build at least one traffic circle to satisfy the federal grant of $5 million, split evenly between the traffic circle and street lighting projects.
Councilmember Kevin Shin said it was a good compromise to solve the speeding issue.
“A lot of folks said, 'I don't mind traffic circles if people knew how to drive through them,'" he said. "And that was what I believe to be an education problem. But there's a difficulty in educating the public en masse when we're trying to do things.”
The traffic circle will be installed at Pine Avenue and Harding Street as an entrance to the Barrio. It will also include artwork. Christine Davis, executive director of the Carlsbad Village Association, who supported traffic circles, was pleased with the outcome.
"Obviously, everybody wanted some traffic calming measures. That was evident from everybody who spoke," she said. "But I believe that this is a good hybrid approach. We still get to maintain funding. Traffic circles as an entrance to the Barrio, I think, will be lovely."
The council also directed staff to come back in November to present other traffic calming options for the Barrio.
