Walk Carlsbad Boulevard south from the Village and you pass both halves of the story in a few blocks. The new stairways at Cherry and Hemlock avenues reopened the week of Oct. 19, with fresh concrete underfoot. A little farther south, the Tamarack State Beach parking lot has been behind fencing since mid-October. It was already closed to cars, and its only repair date is one State Parks says it "hopes" to meet.
Two separate agencies are responsible for these spots, and each one works its own way. Once you know where one agency's area ends and the other's begins, this fall's patchwork of beach closures starts to make sense.
Most of Carlsbad's sand belongs to the state
Carlsbad has about 7 miles of coastline. In a September update, the city manager pointed out that the City of Carlsbad owns and manages only about 1 mile of it, from just north of Oak Avenue to the Oceanside border. On top of that it manages a short piece of Terramar between Cerezo Drive and Cannon Road. Most of the beach south of Pine Street down to the Encinitas border belongs to the state and is managed by California State Parks.
Carlsbad's neighbors split it differently. Nearly all of Oceanside's beaches are owned and managed by the City of Oceanside. In Encinitas, about half are city-owned and half belong to the state. Carlsbad leans heavily toward the state, so the city can't make repairs at Tamarack. Because it's state property, the city says it "simply does not have the authority to take the lead or start making repairs."
The same split covers smaller things. The worn sign at the entrance to Robert C. Frazee State Beach, near the grass triangle on Carlsbad Boulevard, belongs to State Parks, not the city. The state's stated goal is to replace signs like it during the fiscal year that runs from July 2026 through July 2027. On the city's own mile north of Oak Avenue, the piles of small stones that showed up this fall are natural "cobble cusps" pushed into place by waves. Nobody dumped them there.
The city does control Carlsbad Boulevard, along with the stairways and sidewalks that lead from the road down to the beach. That's why the city is busy at the top of the bluff while the state deals with what's below it.
The city's stair project is running on schedule
The city is replacing all four stairways along Carlsbad Boulevard between Hemlock and Pine avenues, and widening the sidewalk over the cliff between Cherry and Pine. The old stairs and sidewalks were built in the 1980s. By now the concrete had chipped away to expose rebar, and soil had eroded from some of the foundations.
Work started in November 2025, stopped over the summer to stay out of beachgoers' way, and picked up again in September 2026. The city's posted schedule has two phases, November 2025 to spring 2026 and fall 2026 to spring 2027, with no work between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Crews work weekdays from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and take federal holidays off.
Here's where each access point stood as of the city's Oct. 22 update:
| Access point | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cherry Avenue stairs | Open | Rebuilt, reopened week of Oct. 19 |
| Hemlock Avenue stairs | Open | Rebuilt, reopened week of Oct. 19 |
| Maple Avenue stairs | Closed | Being replaced now |
| Sycamore Avenue stairs | Closed | Being replaced now |
| Pine Avenue ramp | Listed as an alternative | On the city's project page |
| Tamarack ramp | Listed as an alternative | State Parks fenced the Tamarack lot and property in mid-October; posted signs at the site are the final word |
The city says the project is on track to finish by summer 2027. Until then, getting through the Village by car or bike works a little differently:
- Carlsbad Boulevard is down to one lane in each direction between Oak and Pine avenues and through the Chestnut Avenue intersection.
- The speed limit in the work zone is 20 mph.
- Bike lanes detour onto Garfield Street from Oak Avenue to Chestnut Avenue.
- Parts of the west-side sidewalk close at times. The city suggests using the lower seawall or the east-side sidewalk instead.
A separate city project to improve ADA beach access near Pine and Tamarack avenues is still in design and could start construction in a few years.
Tamarack's lot is waiting on an engineer
The Tamarack timeline looks very different from the stair project. It has no posted phases and no fixed end date, only a string of updates as the shoreline kept changing:
- Late August or early September: The parking lot closed to cars. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported the closure as Friday, Aug. 28. The city's later update says more loosely that vehicles have been barred "since early September."
- Sept. 4: The Union-Tribune reported that weeks of large south swells had stripped Tamarack's sand down to cobbles. State Parks said the sand loss, tides and waves made the riprap "slough westward onto the beach." The agency was consulting coastal engineers and the California Coastal Commission and had "no estimated timeline for reopening" the lot.
- Sept. 5: NBC 7 San Diego reported that visitors were parking along Carlsbad Boulevard and on nearby neighborhood streets.
- Oct. 12: FOX 5 San Diego reported that surf from Tropical Storm Rachel over the weekend made the erosion worse, leaving crumbling asphalt, sand and debris in the lot. A longtime visitor told FOX 5, "I've been coming here since the 80s, and I walk the seawall all the time, and I'm sad."
- Oct. 16: The city reported that State Parks had fenced off the lot and property over the weekend, closing it to pedestrians too. State Parks had hired a coastal engineer to plan repairs and hopes to finish the work by the end of December.
State Parks currently lists Carlsbad State Beach as "Open with restrictions in services and/or facilities" without saying which ones. The end-of-December target is something the state hopes for and the city passed along. It isn't a reopening date. The city has said it will post updates in its City Newsroom as it hears from the state.
At Las Encinas Creek, city and state work sit side by side
The clearest place to see the split is in south Carlsbad, where the city's bluff work and a state closure sit right next to each other.
After a Sept. 8 geotechnical report recommended emergency stabilization of the bluff along south Carlsbad Boulevard, north of the bridge at Las Encinas Creek, the city declared a local emergency on Sept. 9 to speed up the work. The Coast News reported that the plan extends the existing revetment about 192 feet north to protect the bluff, the shoreline and the road. In early October, trucks began delivering boulders weighing two to six tons each, and a crane lowered them from the roadside to the beach. The city expects revetment work to continue through late 2026, ahead of what it called "potentially strong El Niño conditions."
While that work goes on, the southbound bike lane on Carlsbad Boulevard between Solamar Drive and Island Way is closed, and the city asks drivers in that stretch to allow extra time.
Just south of the city's work zone, State Parks temporarily closed the restroom and part of the North Ponto parking lot at South Carlsbad State Beach because of damage from Tropical Storm Rachel. That area sits just north of the state campground. The state expects the partial closure to stay in place until engineers evaluate the lot and the bluff.
So on one stretch of bluff, the city's road got an emergency declaration in September and a crane by early October, as a precaution ahead of winter. Right next to it, the state's lot is partly closed after Rachel's damage and is waiting for an assessment.
Choosing a beach entrance in November
Taken together, the updates point to a few practical choices for the next several weeks:
- Village stairs: Use Cherry or Hemlock while Maple and Sycamore are rebuilt. Expect a 20 mph work zone and the Garfield Street bike detour between Oak and Chestnut.
- The city's mile north of Oak: None of this fall's closures fall here. The cobble patterns on this stretch are natural.
- Tamarack: No parking lot. In September, NBC 7 reported people parking along Carlsbad Boulevard and nearby streets, and since mid-October the state's fencing also keeps walkers off the lot and property.
- North Ponto: Part of the lot and the restroom are closed. State Parks recommends visiting around low tide, when more sand is exposed between the cliffs and the waves and you can keep a safer distance from the bluffs.
- South of Solamar on a bike: The southbound lane is closed until the revetment is done.
Conditions on the state's side can change after any big swell. The city's beach stairs project page and its construction updates list are the fastest way to check the city's side before you head out.
I've followed Carlsbad's coastline for more than 24 years, including how projects like these stairways and seawall repairs show up when homes near the beach change hands. If you live near one of these access points and want to know how this winter's work could affect your plans, Kevin Laurent is glad to talk it through. Let's connect, and you can start with a complimentary home valuation.
