PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID ENCINITAS, CA 92024 PERMIT NO. 94
THE COAST NEWS
.com SERVING NORTH COUNTY SINCE 1987
VOL. 34, N0. 1
JAN. 3, 2020
SAN MARCOS -NEWS
Poinsettia 61 project nears . completion
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$30 million for Streetscape?
By Steve Puterski
ects, including Encinitas Community Park, the Encinitas Library and Pacific View Elementary School. The Streetscape loan would add $1.6 million a year to their payments for the next 10 years. She said the city should have no problem meeting that higher debt obligation, as the most critical credit criteria is that the city’s general fund revenues are higher than the city’s expenditures, and forecasts over the next 10 years in-
CARLSBADTHE — In the next several months, VISTA a new arterial will finally be connected after deNEWS cades of waiting. Poinsettia Lane, otherwise known as the Poinsettia 61 project, is expected to be completed in mid-2020 with a bridge and three stoplights connecting the roadway from just east of El Camino Real to the Cassia Road intersection. RANCHO Deputy City Manager ofSFNEWS Public Works Paz Gomez and John Kim, a traffic engineer, reported to the City Council during its Dec. 10 meeting the bridge connector will feature three stoplights and the study reveals traffic volumes should decrease on Ambrosia Lane, Aviara Parkway and Cassia Road. “The report was finalized in November 2019 by our consultant,” Gomez said. “We held a public meeting Nov. 21 … to present the report and its findings. In 2017, the council authorized staff to develop traffic-calming measures using the Residential Traffic Management Program. One of the goals is to discourage passthrough traffic along Cassia Road, which is the only pathway between Aviara Parkway and Palomar Airport Road for motorists and cyclists to access El Camino Real. Other aspects of the study researched a traffic
TURN TO STREETSCAPE ON A8
TURN TO POINSETTIA ON A7
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TAKING A LOAN: The city of Encinitas is looking into borrowing $30 million to finance its long-planned and much-anticipated Leucadia Streetscape project, which will revamp a 2.5-mile section of Coast Highway 101. Photo by Abraham Jewett
Encinitas to pursue loan for 101 project in Leucadia By Tawny McCray
ENCINITAS — Encinitas is looking into borrowing $30 million to finance its long planned and much anticipated Leucadia Streetscape project, which will revamp a 2.5-mile section of Coast Highway 101. City Finance Director and Treasurer Teresa McBroome told the City Council at its Dec. 18 meeting that Encinitas has the highest credit rating available — AAA and AA+ — and should be approved for a 30year loan with a 3% interest rate to fund the project.
The council voted unanimously to direct the city manager to submit a loan application to an agency called California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, commonly referred to as IBank. The bank is a state agency that provides low-cost financing to other government agencies for a wide range of infrastructure projects. “It was mentioned that this is a great interest rate, I think we need to take advantage of that now,” Councilwoman Kellie Shay Hinze said before the vote.
Hinze also said because the project could possibly be funded through IBank, and not through a bond measure, it adds flexibility for the city to be able to use some of the funds for other projects. “This doesn’t preclude us from other investments that we want to make in our city,” Hinze said. “My hope is that we can recruit more grant funds for Streetscape and, as we do that, this money is flexible and that we can advance other projects that we hope to see, including rail crossings (and) a
quiet zone.” The Leucadia Streetscape project has been in the works for more than a decade and will include six roundabouts between A Street and La Costa Avenue, bike lanes, pedestrian paths, wider sidewalks and crosswalks, more parking and the planting of about 1,000 trees. The project is currently estimated at $28 million. McBroome said that Encinitas is currently making debt payments of $3.5 million a year on previous major construction proj-
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