Encinitas Is a City Divided and It’s Because of ‘The Barrier’

Quiet, tree-lined Crest Drive was a nightmare before The Barrier, residents of the street say. Even the simple process of pulling out of the driveway could be harrowing, as hurried commuters used the two-lane road as a shortcut between Interstate 5 and the Village Park residential area to the east.

During one 20-month stretch, local residents counted 24 accidents on the residential road.

“If you drove the speed limit, 35 m.p.h., you were passed,” said Ron Grimes, a Crest Drive resident.

The barrier changed all that.

Installed in 1988 at the north end of Crest where it meets Santa Fe Drive, a major traffic artery, the “semi-diverter” blocked through traffic, preventing commuters from using Crest as a connection to Santa Fe Drive. Although it still allows eastbound traffic on Santa Fe to access Crest, the barrier put a quick end to Crest Drive’s use as a shortcut.

The barrier also sparked a wave of indignation and lawsuits from angry Encinitans, who viewed the road closure as preferential treatment for the Crest Drive residents.

For four years, the debate over the semi-diverter has pitted neighborhood against neighborhood. People who live within a few blocks of each other have stood up at packed City Council meetings to angrily denounce their counterparts as elitist snobs.

Now, long after locals thought the issue had finally faded away, it appears the barrier is going to be torn down.

More than just a neighborhood dispute, the barrier has turned into a volatile citywide sore point. Popular council members have found their political careers tarnished by talk of favoritism. Friendships have been shattered.

At the heart of the argument is a subliminal class struggle in this young city, based on a festering accusation that the Crest Drive residents were given a special privilege. Although far from opulent, many of the homes along Crest are large and secluded, raising charges that the supposedly wealthy residents were able to pull strings on the council to get Crest closed down.

More than 75 residents attended a recent council meeting to voice their opinions on the topic. During the meeting, the Encinitas City Council authorized the city staff to research alternatives to the semi-diverter, making it clear that they intended to bring an end to the barrier.

“We’re trying now to do the best thing for the entire area,” Mayor Maura Wiegand said after the meeting, addressing the general impression that Crest Drive residents were given preferential treatment.

Residents of Lake Drive, which runs parallel to Crest Drive about half a mile to the west, have led the fight against the barrier. By closing Crest, their road became the major commuter link between Birmingham and Santa Fe.

“It’s very unfair,” said Ed Obermeyer, a member of Safety Always for Everyone, a group organized to fight the barrier. He doesn’t live on Lake Drive--he lives on an offshoot--but he is against the barrier as a “matter of principle.”

Since the barrier went up, Lake Drive, home to a smattering of small greenhouses and residences, has gone through a dramatic change. A stop light went in on the corner of Lake and Santa Fe drives, and two scruffy softball fields have been developed into a city “sports center,” with new bleachers and renovated fields.

While Crest has become one of the least-traveled roads in the city, traffic on Lake has steadily increased.

“They should take some traffic,” Obermeyer said. “They didn’t try one alternative means before closing (Crest), not one.”

If the goal was to eliminate traffic from Crest, most everyone agrees that the semi-diverter worked. Traffic along Crest was cut to a small fraction of its former volume.

As part of a settlement of a lawsuit brought by barrier opponents, the city paid $17,000 for Santa Ana-based Austin-Foust Co. to study the area’s traffic flow. It concluded that the barrier, along with other changes in the area’s traffic pattern--such as stop signs, tougher speed limits and police patrols--had effectively reduced traffic by an average of 1,600 vehicles a day.

Before 1988, traffic along Crest Drive reached a high of 3,750 average daily trips. Now, there are only 350 such trips on the road, the study found.

But opponents deride the report for not analyzing the effect of the other factors impacting the area, and ignoring potential alternatives. But compiling such data would have been much more expensive and that was not the assignment, Austin-Foust principal Joseph Foust said.

The City Council heard the results of the study last month and promptly commissioned another study--this one to be produced by city staff with the focus on examining alternatives to the barrier.

“I think the council has made it clear that they don’t feel closing streets necessarily solves problems,” City Manager Warren Shafer said.

“Fairness” is the word most often used by opponents of the barrier.

“I think everyone would like to live on a closed road,” Councilwoman Anne Omsted said. “I think it is a fairness issue more than anything else.”

But Crest Drive residents also cry for fairness. They say that the General Plan, approved by the county in 1964, long before Encinitas incorporated as a city in 1986, designates Lake Drive, not Crest, as the road best-suited to handle the bulk of local traffic.

If fairness is the issue, they say, than the plan should be followed and Crest Drive should not be a major commuter road. In fairness, the city should stick to the plan, they say.

They also point to a detailed Neighborhood Traffic Diversion Program adopted last year by the city. Prepared at the insistence of barrier opponents, it developed guidelines for setting up barriers and diverting traffic from neighborhoods.

The Austin-Foust report concluded that the Crest Drive barrier meets the criteria set down by the traffic diversion program.

“The situation is the criteria may be there, but a decision has to be a political decision and it has to be made with discretion,” Mayor Wiegand countered. “The figures say one thing, but we have to look at what happens to the entire neighborhood.”

To a degree, both sides agree on one thing--politics is at the heart of the Crest Drive debate.

More than anything else, the one factor that has changed in four years is the makeup of the City Council. Only one member remains from the original council elected when the Encinitas incorporated as a city in 1986--Omsted, the only council member to vote against the barrier. Even Marjorie Gaines, one of the founders of the city and its first mayor, lost a bid for reelection, in part, some say, because of her support of the barrier.

Gaines faced a backlash because she “didn’t look at the whole community,” Omsted said. “Crest Drive was a symbol of that.”

At council and city traffic commission meetings discussing the barrier, the opponents to the barrier are vocal and represent a broad range of the community. Many complain that Crest Drive was turned into a private street at public expense.

“I’ve never seen a situation where so many people are against something and so few are in favor,” Obermeyer said.

Crest Drive residents realize that the tide of the community has moved away from their point of view.

“One of the problems we have is the problem has gone away,” Grimes said. “It’s hazy why it was all done in the first place.”

The situation has changed, Wiegand said. Removing the barrier doesn’t necessarily mean that Crest will return to the way it was, she said. Other alternatives, such as striping and signage may help.

“I feel a diverter should only be used as a last resort,” Wiegand said.

After so many years, opponents of the barrier are not taking anything for granted, nor are they satisfied that the council is moving ahead with a study of alternatives.

“We want the barrier removed, then the study done,” Obermeyer said.

But Crest Drive residents have an attorney, too. They fear that without the barrier Crest will once again become a nightmare.

“I know the street was not safe, and I know it’s safe now,” Grimes said. “I have a 2 1/2-year-old kid, who, no matter how hard I try, I can’t stop from going outside, and it terrifies me.”