On Tuesday, the Carlsbad City Council voted to proceed with a revised plan that reduces the originally proposed five traffic circles in the Barrio to one.

The traffic circle will be located at the intersection of Pine Avenue and Harding Street and include public art. Additionally, staff will bring back options for alternative traffic calming measures to help reduce speeds and improve safety at other intersections in the Barrio for consideration at a future meeting in November 2025. Those could include stop signs, raised crosswalks and/or speed cushions. 

As approved, the project will:

• Minimize parking impacts in the area. Seven parking spaces will be eliminated at the intersection of Pine Avenue and Harding Street, which is a decrease from 27 if the project had included all five traffic circles. Two of these spaces are no longer legal to park in due to the state’s new “daylighting law,” which restricts parking within 20 feet of most intersections. To offset the parking loss at the traffic circle intersection, staff identified 14 spaces in the nearby area that they expect to add by the end of August. This will result in a total net gain of seven parking spaces in the area.

The city is also looking at additional ways to add more on-street parking in the Barrio, including evaluating parallel parking spaces on wider streets that could be converted to diagonal parking. A total of 14 parking spaces are expected to be added by the end of next month by modifying red curbs, and additional analysis is underway. An additional 13 parking spaces are expected to be conceptually designed by the end of the year near the Madison Street and Chestnut Avenue intersection. 

Project background  

The concept for the Barrio Traffic Circles project was originally proposed in 2014 as part of the Village and Barrio Master Plan, with the overall goal of improving traffic safety and walkability.  

At its meeting on June 24, 2025, the City Council postponed a decision to award a construction contract for the Barrio Traffic Circles project, which included five traffic circles, given concerns about parking impacts and recent community feedback about traffic circles and roundabouts in Carlsbad. Instead, the City Council asked staff to bring the proposal back on July 29, 2025, and include traffic calming options ranging from no traffic circles, a hybrid option with at least one traffic circle and an option to keep all five as originally proposed. Additional community input was also gathered on the topic and provided for the City Council’s consideration. 

Next steps