Leucadia's Sunday Moved Inland This Year. Highway 101 Is Almost Ready to Win It Back.

In February, Leucadia Cyclery owner Jeff Schade hung a six-foot sign on a piece of construction equipment parked about 10 feet from his shop on North Coast Highway 101, and he left it up. "The tractor did not start its engine for three weeks and sat in front of Avocado Street with no movement," he told The Coast News in July.

The joke pointed at a real problem. Through 2026, Leucadia's main street spent the year as a work zone, and its biggest weekly gathering moved off the coast completely. Both are close to settled now. The open question is whether people's Sunday routine comes back to the 101 once the barricades are gone.

Two Sundays, About a Mile Apart

The Leucadia Farmers Market ran for 20 years at Paul Ecke Central Elementary. Its last Sunday there was June 7. Leucadia 101 Mainstreet operates the market, and it had to leave because construction is coming to the school. Neighbors near the new site appealed the move. The Encinitas City Council rejected the appeal unanimously on June 17, and the market reopened at Oak Crest Middle School on June 21.

The approval came with conditions. The market has to keep a 200-foot buffer from nearby homes and is capped at 135 vendors. Before the move, organizers had proposed up to 195. On the first Oak Crest Sunday, 116 vendors showed up, including 26 farmers and 25 hot-food stands. Leucadia 101 executive director Stacy Reddell called it "an amazing, perfect location" in The Coast News. She said traffic and parking worked well, partly because the Encinitas Community and Senior Center parking lot is right next door.

As of a Patch listing published Sept. 23, the market runs every Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 675 Balour Drive.

For two decades, a Sunday market run meant parking near the coast and walking out onto the 101 for coffee or tacos afterward. That's not how Sunday works this year. And nobody has said yet whether the market will return to Paul Ecke Central. Reddell told The Coast News a return is possible but undecided. The Encinitas Union School District estimates the rebuild will finish in 2027, and an Oct. 8 joint statement from the City and the District pushed a project meeting to Oct. 13.

The Mile That Kept Slipping

The 101 had its own reasons for losing foot traffic. Segment C of the Leucadia Streetscape runs from Jupiter Street to La Costa Avenue and carries an estimated $32 million price tag. The full multi-phase project is past $65 million. Construction started in 2024 and was first scheduled to finish by summer 2025.

The schedule moved several times:

The delay came from that drainage work. It added a new storm drain system meant to reduce flooding along the corridor. According to the City's project page, crews have now installed all of the 60-inch, 66-inch and 36-inch storm drainpipe. They're still finishing water and drainage connections between Jupiter and La Costa. South of La Costa, on the west side, they're building new curb, gutter, sidewalk, a bus pad and driveways. The City says driveway and business access will stay open throughout.

Business owners describe the cost. Reddell surveyed 20 businesses along the corridor and found sales down an average of 25% to 40% over the previous year, The Coast News reported in July. In the same Coast News story, Tom Chu of Leucadia Donut Shoppe said northbound customers often have to keep driving to La Costa Avenue to make a U-turn. In an NBC 7 report on Aug. 10, Schade said customers had trouble reaching his shop, or didn't want to try, because of the turn, the parking and the work zone.

Who Is Still on the Street

Some of the 101 is the same as before the construction, and some of it isn't. Here are named addresses along the Leucadia stretch and how they stand, based on the latest reporting and each business's own posted information.

Several pieces of that table came out of press coverage. Johnny Rad'z opened with sourdough pizza, hoagies and salads. 101 Bikes was founded by Jeremy McGrath and Bob Haro, according to The Coast News. The same outlet reported Yoga 101's closing last December. Captain Keno's closed in October 2024, and demolition of its building started in late June 2025. In April, San Diego Magazine reported that Coast Thai-Way planned to bring Lao and Thai dishes to 698 N. Coast Highway 101. We haven't been able to confirm that it has opened.

The Leucadian, Leucadia Donut Shoppe and Sip-N-Sea were all operating when The Coast News and NBC 7 covered the corridor this summer. Just off the 101, Haven Farm + Table at Fox Point Farms serves dinner Wednesday through Monday, with lunch hours on weekends, at 1200 Fox Point Farms Lane.

What the Finished Street Changes About Getting There

The completed Segment C targets the same problems business owners have been describing. The City's plan includes roundabouts at Jupiter Street and Moorgate Road. It also adds a crosswalk and pedestrian signal at Avocado Street, which is the corner where Schade's idle tractor sat. Wider sidewalks, dedicated bike lanes, new streetlights, benches and bike racks are part of it too. The broader Streetscape plan lists "New Roundabouts for Improved Traffic Flow and U-Turn Opportunities," more parking on both the east and west sides, parking assist lanes for deliveries, and 101 new trees to restore the corridor's canopy.

If the plan works as designed, a northbound driver headed to Leucadia Donut Shoppe can turn around at Moorgate or Jupiter. Today that trip runs all the way to La Costa. The extra parking speaks directly to what The Leucadian's co-owner David Shapiro told The Coast News: losing street parking had discouraged customers from booking events. The City's September update doesn't say whether the roundabouts, the Avocado signal or the trees are already in place. Until the City announces completion, these are features of the finished design.

Where the Finish Line Stops

Two more Leucadia segments are still waiting on money. Segment B, from Basil Street to Jupiter Street, and Segment A1, from A Street to Marcheta Street, both have completed preliminary designs and no construction funding. The Planning Commission advanced a 1.23-mile decomposed-granite walkway along west Vulcan Avenue, from Leucadia Boulevard to just short of La Costa Avenue. The Coast News reported that the walkway isn't funded either, and the Council could next consider it in the budget cycle starting July 1, 2027.

Rail-corridor work along the tracks has secured funding. Encinitas won $33.6 million for new at-grade crossings at Grandview and Phoebe in Leucadia, a pedestrian undercrossing at Verdi Avenue in Cardiff, and a train-horn quiet zone from E Street to Leucadia Boulevard. As of the San Diego Union-Tribune's Aug. 20 report, the Leucadia crossings were about 70% designed, and the City has to put up a 20% match.

For now, the fall calendar sits mostly south of the work zone. Downtown Encinitas Safe Trick-or-Treat runs Oct. 31 from 5 to 8 p.m. along South Coast Highway 101. The Encinitas 101 Holiday Street Fair follows on Nov. 22 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. In Leucadia, the market keeps running at Oak Crest from 10 to 2 on Sundays, and Pannikin at 510 N. Coast Highway 101 is open until 5.

If you own a home near the Leucadia stretch of the 101 and want to know how a finished Segment C and the corridor projects still to come could factor into its value, The Lotzof Group can walk you through it. Request a confidential home valuation and we'll start with your block.