In February, Leucadia Cyclery owner Jeff Schade hung a six-foot sign over a piece of construction equipment parked in front of his shop on North Coast Highway 101. He told The Coast News that the tractor "did not start its engine for three weeks and sat in front of Avocado Street with no movement."
The sign was a joke. The frustration behind it was real, and the joke made it easy to see. The city's finished renderings of Leucadia Streetscape Segment C show green bike lanes, median trees and wider sidewalks. For anyone who has spent the past two years trying to get coffee, a donut or a bike tune-up on the north end of Leucadia, though, the change that matters most is smaller. Two roundabouts, one at Grandview Street and one at Jupiter Street, give drivers back the nearby place to turn around that construction took away.
The Detour Built Into Every Northbound Stop
Segment C runs from Jupiter Street north to La Costa Avenue. The city says it started in early 2024, and its September 17, 2026 update expects it to finish in late fall 2026. For most of that time, a business on the inland side of the highway has been easy to pass and hard to get back to.
Leucadia Donut Shoppe owner Tom Chu described the problem to The Coast News in July. Many northbound customers who miss the shop keep driving all the way to La Costa Avenue to make a U-turn, and he said sales this summer were down from past years. Stacy Reddell, executive director of the Leucadia 101 Mainstreet Association, told the paper that the lack of a closer U-turn had hurt businesses along the corridor. She surveyed 20 of them and found sales down 25% to 40% on average over the past year.
The cost isn't spread evenly across Leucadia. It falls hardest on the businesses you can't easily double back to, and the finished design addresses exactly that.
What Grandview and Jupiter Actually Change
The city's Segment C FAQ, updated October 7, 2026, lists what the finished stretch will include. Ranked by how much each item changes a trip to the shops:
- Two new roundabouts, at Grandview Street and Jupiter Street. The city's corridor page lists "U-Turn Opportunities" next to improved traffic flow as the reason for the roundabouts. A northbound driver who misses a turn will be able to circle back at one of them instead of going to La Costa.
- A new pedestrian crossing signal at Avocado Street. That is the block where Leucadia Cyclery sits and where the tractor stood still in February.
- Street lighting. Schade told The Coast News he had added LED lights along his storefront eaves because the stretch between The Leucadian Bar and Avocado Street had no streetlights. He called it "pitch black" at night.
- Parking on the west side of the highway.
- Wider sidewalks and new or improved crosswalks.
- A dedicated bike lane with some buffer zone, plus median trees and irrigation.
Taken together, the Avocado signal and the new lighting target one block that local reporting described as dark and hard to cross on foot, and the roundabouts shorten the drive back to it.
The city's broader North Highway 101 page still names Jupiter and Moorgate as the Segment C roundabouts. The FAQ, updated October 7, is the newer document, and it names Grandview and Jupiter.
Cyclists will see one difference. The Encinitas Wave reported in August that the project replaces the interim striping with permanent green buffered bike lanes. According to the city FAQ, the bike lane is marked everywhere except at the roundabouts. There, riders can use the sidewalk or take the full vehicle lane.
Why the Last Stretch Took the Longest
Leucadia Streetscape as a whole covers 2.5 miles of North Coast Highway 101. It broke ground in January 2021, and The Coast News, citing state loan documents, puts the total cost above $65 million. Segment C accounts for an estimated $32 million and was first scheduled to finish by summer 2025.
The delay came from underground work. The City Council approved a new storm drain system for the corridor, and Director of Engineering Dan Nutter told the paper that added about a year and a half to the schedule. The city says the drainage has to be built before the roadway and mobility work can start. That explains why the visible parts are arriving last.
As of the city's September 17 update, all of the 60-inch, 66-inch and 36-inch storm drain pipe between Jupiter and La Costa is in the ground. Crews are still working on laterals, inlets and water main, and on sidewalks, curbs, gutters and driveways. Drivers should expect intermittent lane shifts. The city says driveway and business access will be maintained.
"Please support our local Leucadia businesses during construction."
The city prints that line on its own project page. Late fall is a forecast, not a date. In July, the forecast was October.
Once Segment C is done, the corridor won't be finished. Segment B, from Basil Street to Jupiter Street, and Segment A1, from A Street to Marcheta Street, have finished designs but no construction funding yet. When the Jupiter roundabout opens, it will mark where the new street ends for now.
A Northbound Run Past the Shops That Stayed Open
If the roundabouts matter because they make it easy to stop, the next question is where to stop. Every business below kept operating through construction. They are listed south to north by street address, so the list works as a single northbound drive or ride.
- Nectarine Grove, 948 N. Coast Hwy 101. Its website lists current hours, menus and online ordering.
- Coffee Coffee, 970 N. Coast Hwy 101, per the Leucadia 101 Mainstreet directory. It shares a co-owner with Surfhouse Hotel, and the Surfhouse site sends hotel guests across the street to it.
- Le Papagayo, 1002 North Coast Hwy 101. Its website lists daily hours and takes reservations.
- Fish 101, 1468 N. Coast Highway 101. Online ordering is available through its site.
- The Leucadian Bar, listed at 1542 N. Coast Hwy 101 in the association directory. Co-owner David Shapiro told The Coast News that the loss of street parking had made customers hesitant to book events there. Parking on the west side is one of the FAQ's listed improvements.
- Leucadia Cyclery, 1560 N. Coast Hwy 101, at the Avocado Street block that is getting the new pedestrian signal. Hours are on the shop's site.
- Leucadia Donut Shoppe, listed at 1604 N. Coast Hwy 101. This is the shop whose northbound customers have been looping up to La Costa.
- Sip-N-Sea, which serves coffee, smoothies and açaí from a walk-up window on the highway.
The Leucadia 101 directory shows its pages as being in preview mode, so call ahead to confirm addresses taken from it.
Between Now and the Last Barricade
A few things on the calendar line up with the final weeks of work.
The Grandview Beach staircase has been rebuilt. The city says the work was substantially complete on May 22, 2026, the stairs reopened for Memorial Day weekend, and the City Council accepted the finished project on August 12. Once the Grandview roundabout opens, the beach access and the new intersection will sit at the same cross street.
The Leucadia Farmers Market runs Sundays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Oak Crest Middle School. The association's October 6 post promoted pumpkin decorating and art at the market. Further south, downtown Encinitas holds its Safe Trick-or-Treat on Saturday, October 31, from 5 to 8 p.m. on South Coast Highway 101. The Holiday Street Fair follows on Sunday, November 22.
Sidewalk tables are staying too. In June, the city extended its temporary outdoor dining program on Highway 101 through July 1, 2027, while staff writes a permanent ordinance.
Nutter told The Coast News the city plans to add signs pointing pedestrians to designated crossings and showing drivers where U-turns are allowed. He also said the city and Leucadia 101 Mainstreet would hold community meetings through the end of the project. Schade said he hopes the city will hold a community celebration when construction ends, to bring customers back to the corridor.
If you own on or near North Leucadia's 101, the finished Segment C changes how buyers will reach your street and how they will experience it, from the roundabout at the corner to the lit block at Avocado. Christine La Bounty builds listing campaigns around changes like this, with staging, professional media and TV exposure that show buyers the corridor as it is about to be. Get Your Home on TV: Request a Premium Listing Consultation.
