The stretch of North Coast Highway 101 between Jupiter Street and La Costa Avenue has no continuous sidewalk in places. One block is unlit at night, and northbound drivers who miss a turn have to go a long way to come back. Business owners on the corridor described each of these problems to The Coast News this summer. Each one also has a matching item on the City of Encinitas's plan for Segment C: wider sidewalks, new streetlights, a pedestrian signal at Avocado Street and roundabouts at Jupiter Street and Moorgate Road. Today the block is a list of everything it is missing, and the City's current estimate puts the fixes at late fall 2026.
Through these final months the businesses are still open, and they are worth the trip.
The Block, Walked North
The independents between Jupiter and La Costa sit within a few hundred feet of each other. Heading north, they line up like this:
- Fish 101, 1468 N. Coast Highway 101
- Sip-N-Sea, 1488 N. Coast Highway 101. Orders go through a walk-up window at the front of the shop.
- The Leucadian, 1542 N. Coast Highway 101
- Leucadia Cyclery, 1560 N. Coast Highway 101, close to Avocado Street. NBC 7 reports that owner Jeff Schade moved the shop to the highway in 2024.
- Leucadia Donut Shoppe, 1604 N. Coast Highway 101
- Tribe Coffee Culture, 1650 N. Coast Highway 101, Suite A
Surfhouse Hotel and Coffee Coffee, both co-owned by Nikolas Harth, are also on North Coast Highway 101 in Leucadia. Fish 101, Sip-N-Sea and The Leucadian were among the eateries at Leucadia 101 MainStreet's Taste of Leucadia on April 16, 2026. Each of the first five owners or businesses on the list above has spoken publicly about what construction has meant at their own door, which is where the rest of this piece picks up.
Three Problems, Three Fixes
Each problem owners describe on the current street lines up with a specific item in the finished design.
| What owners describe now | Where it happens | What Segment C adds |
|---|---|---|
| No defined sidewalk, so pedestrians walk on "a strip of cracked-up asphalt" | In front of Leucadia Cyclery | Wider sidewalks |
| A stretch Schade called "pitch black" at night | Between The Leucadian and Avocado Street | New streetlights and a pedestrian signal at Avocado |
| Northbound customers continuing to La Costa Avenue to U-turn | Approaching Leucadia Donut Shoppe | Roundabouts at Jupiter Street and Moorgate Road |
Owners have filled some of these gaps themselves for now. Schade put A-frame signs along the road edge to give people on foot a buffer, and he says cars have struck several of them. He added flashing red bicycle lights to warn southbound drivers that the lane narrows, and he strung LED lighting along the eaves of his storefront because there are no streetlights on that stretch. The City installed temporary orange barricades in front of Sip-N-Sea after Georgees reported that a customer and the customer's dog were nearly hit by a passing vehicle.
Donut Shoppe owner Tom Chu said the missing U-turn made it hard for northbound customers to reach him. Many kept driving to La Costa Avenue to turn around, and he said his summer sales fell compared with earlier years. Stacy Reddell, executive director of Leucadia 101 MainStreet Association, said the lack of a closer U-turn has had a significant effect on businesses along the corridor. The Jupiter and Moorgate roundabouts are designed to solve that geometry, and Moorgate sits inside the very stretch Chu described.
Why the Calendar Slipped
Segment C began construction in 2024 and was first scheduled to finish by summer 2025. Director of Engineering Dan Nutter told The Coast News that the timeline grew by about a year and a half after the City Council approved more drainage work, including a new storm drain system to reduce flooding along the corridor. The full Streetscape project broke ground in January 2021 and costs more than $65 million, and Segment C accounts for an estimated $32 million of that.
The drainage work that delayed the project is also something some owners on the corridor want. Harth, who supports the upgrades, said his hotel has flooded in past storms, with 8 to 10 inches of water coming into a ground-floor room. Leucadia 101 MainStreet Association treasurer Kevin Doyle, a former member of the city's Planning Commission, noted that the project was first proposed in 2008.
Where the Work Stands in October
The City last updated its project page on September 17, 2026. As of that update, all of the 60-inch, 66-inch and 36-inch underground storm drain pipe is in. Crews are still working on cleanout boxes, storm drain laterals and inlets, water service laterals and the water main between Jupiter Street and La Costa Avenue. On the west side south of La Costa Avenue, crews are building new curb, gutter, sidewalk, a bus pad, a bus shelter pad and driveways.
In July, the City expected Segment C to be finished by October. The September update now says late fall 2026. Until then, the City says to expect intermittent lane shifts, noise, dust, lighting and large construction vehicles, and it says access to driveways and businesses will be maintained.
A few practical points for a visit this month:
- Driving north, plan your turn before you reach the block. Owners have described La Costa Avenue as the nearest U-turn.
- On foot, use designated crossings. Nutter said the City planned more signs pointing pedestrians to those crossings and showing drivers where U-turns are allowed.
- After dark, expect the stretch between The Leucadian and Avocado Street to be unlit until the new streetlights go in.
- At Sip-N-Sea, keep in mind that Georgees has said he did not yet know how customers would reach his walk-up window once construction gets to his storefront.
The City also said it would hold community meetings with Leucadia 101 MainStreet to share updates with business owners through the end of the project. Schade has said he hopes the City will hold a community celebration once the street is finished, to help bring customers back. No celebration has been announced so far.
What Comes After Segment C
Segment C is not the last piece of work on this corridor. Encinitas has been awarded up to $33.6 million in federal funds for rail corridor safety work. That includes pedestrian and bicycle crossings at Grandview and Phoebe in Leucadia, an undercrossing between Verdi and Liszt, and changes at the downtown station. The Grandview and Phoebe crossings are in final engineering, and design was expected to be finished by the end of 2026. Design for Segment B, from Basil Street to Jupiter Street, is complete, but construction funding has not been secured.
The Rest of the Encinitas Fall Calendar
The nearest scheduled events this fall are downtown and at the civic center.
- Encinitas Art Night, Saturday, October 17, 6 to 8 p.m., at City Hall, the Community Center, Encinitas Library and Pacific View Arts Center, with a free shuttle.
- Safe Trick-or-Treat, Saturday, October 31, 5 to 8 p.m., on South Coast Highway 101, with downtown businesses open, live music, children's activities and free family art activities at Pacific View.
- Encinitas 101 Holiday Street Fair, Sunday, November 22, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Shop Small Saturday, November 28, noon to 3 p.m., with live music, sidewalk sales and local specials.
Right now, the north 101 block has none of the crossings, lights or turnarounds it is waiting for, and the businesses on it are open.
At Barry Estates, we follow projects like Leucadia Streetscape block by block because they change how a street works day to day. If you'd like to talk about what the finished 101 and the coming rail crossings could mean for your corner of Encinitas, Schedule a Private Consultation with our team.
