"People need to know more about what the state and city are doing about it," Carlsbad resident Amber Martinez told the city's Environmental Sustainability Commission in early October. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported her comments in its coverage of the Tamarack parking lot damage. She called herself a fourth-generation Carlsbad resident and said, "What I am seeing now is alarming, powerful waves are stripping away the shoreline."
Part of the answer to her question is a map. Three separate projects are changing beach access along Carlsbad Boulevard this fall: the fenced Tamarack lot, the stairway replacements north of Pine, and the boulder wall going in near Las Encinas Creek. Each is moving at its own pace, and the reason is who owns the ground.
The state owns most of the coastline
Carlsbad has about seven miles of coastline, and the city owns and manages about one mile of it. According to a City of Carlsbad update posted Oct. 16, California State Parks owns and manages the other six. That includes Tamarack State Beach and its parking lot.
| Stretch of coast | Who owns and manages it | What's happening this fall |
|---|---|---|
| Just north of Oak Avenue to the Oceanside border | City of Carlsbad | Cobble cusps on the beach, which the city says formed naturally |
| South of Pine Avenue to the Encinitas border | California State Parks | Tamarack lot and property fenced off; repairs targeted for the end of December |
| Terramar, between Cerezo Drive and Cannon Road | City of Carlsbad | No current project in the city's updates |
| Seawall between Tamarack and Pine | State land, with the city keeping it to a higher standard by agreement | Beach worn down to cobblestones at the base of the wall |
The split is different in neighboring cities. In the same update, the city notes that Oceanside owns and manages nearly all of its own beaches, while Encinitas's beaches are about half city-owned and half state-owned.
The city puts it plainly: Tamarack is state property, so the city "simply does not have the authority to take the lead or start making repairs."
What happened at Tamarack, and why the fence went up now
The damage built up over late summer. The Union-Tribune reported that State Parks closed the lot on Aug. 28 after weeks of big waves. State Parks said riprap was sliding onto the beach because the sand was gone and tides and waves were hitting the rock directly. In the same article, Scripps researcher Adam Young said strong south swells pushed more sand north along the shore. He said some of it may have moved offshore, but no offshore data exists to confirm that.
By early October the lot itself was breaking up. The Union-Tribune described chunks of asphalt washing off the seaward edge even with a line of protective boulders in place. KPBS visited on Oct. 1 and found a Carlsbad High physical education class surfing at Tamarack on pebbles and rocks instead of sand. KPBS reported that the beach lost most of its sand between August and September, partly from Hurricane Genevieve's storm swells.
The closure then got tighter. Cars had been barred since early September. Over the weekend before Oct. 16, State Parks staff fenced off the parking lot and the property around it, so people on foot can't get in either. If the walk down the Tamarack entrance is part of your routine, it is closed for now. The city's stair-project page still lists the Tamarack ramp as open, but that listing was written before the fence went up.
The repair schedule now depends on the state. State Parks Lt. Sean Homer told the commission that a coastal engineer has been hired, bids should go out within about a month, and the work should be done by the end of December, according to the Union-Tribune. The city's Oct. 16 update gives the same target. Neither agency has named an alternate lot. NBC 7 San Diego reported that since the closure, visitors have been parking along Carlsbad Boulevard and on nearby neighborhood streets.
The seawall stretch has two caretakers
Between Tamarack and Pine, the two agencies overlap. The beach belongs to the state, but under an agreement the city maintains the concrete seawall promenade to a higher standard than the state would, with landscaping, benches and restrooms. According to the Union-Tribune, much of the beach below that wall has worn down to cobblestones, and the beaches here are the narrowest they have been in years.
A separate city project is running just north of the seawall. The city is replacing the four Carlsbad Boulevard stairways between Hemlock and Pine avenues and widening the sidewalk between Cherry and Pine. The work comes in two phases, November 2025 to spring 2026 and fall 2026 to spring 2027. Crews work weekdays from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and stop between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
The city's project page lists this status for each access point:
- Hemlock Avenue stairway: closed.
- Cherry Avenue stairway: closed.
- Maple Avenue stairway: open for now. Demolition and rebuilding are scheduled for fall 2026, with no start date given.
- Sycamore Avenue stairway: same as Maple. Open for now, scheduled for this fall.
- Pine Avenue ramp: listed as open.
The city said in an Aug. 27 update that crews would finish Cherry and Hemlock before moving on to Maple and Sycamore, and that at least two stairways between Tamarack and Pine would stay open during the project. While crews are working, Carlsbad Boulevard drops to one lane each way with a 20 mph limit in the work zone. Parts of the west sidewalk close at times, and the city points walkers to the lower seawall or the east-side sidewalk instead.
This is the stretch where the two schedules overlap. The state is working on Tamarack's lot at the south end of the seawall. The city is rebuilding stairs at the north end. Until the state finishes, the Tamarack entrance won't take any of the walkers the stair closures send elsewhere.
South of Solamar, the road belongs to the city
The south end of Carlsbad Boulevard shows the difference ownership makes. A geotechnical report recommended emergency stabilization for part of the coastal bluff north of the Las Encinas Creek bridge. The city declared a local emergency on Sept. 9 to speed up the work, and the stated goal is protecting the road ahead of what could be strong El Niño conditions.
Work is visible from the road now. In its Oct. 9 construction update, the city said trucks had started delivering boulders weighing two to six tons each, and a large crane is lowering them from the roadside to the beach. The southbound bike lane between Solamar Drive and Island Way is closed while the work goes on. More boulders are coming over the next few weeks, and the city expects revetment construction to continue through late 2026. If you ride south on that route, expect to share the traffic lane with cars through that stretch for the rest of the year.
From the Sept. 9 emergency declaration to the crane on the beach took about a month. The city controls this road, so it could act on its own declaration. At Tamarack, the city can only monitor the damage and offer to help State Parks if asked.
North of Oak, nobody dumped the rocks
The one mile of beach the city fully controls has its own change this fall. People walking the beach north of Oak Avenue have seen stones gathered into scalloped clusters along the shoreline. The city calls these "cobble cusps" and says waves and changing ocean conditions moved the rocks into those patterns. It has seen them before. When residents asked whether someone had placed the rocks there, the city's answer was that no one had.
More weather is coming
The weather may keep testing all of this. KPBS reported that several coastal communities from Long Beach to Carlsbad declared local emergencies after this summer's storms, and that weather experts say this could be the strongest El Niño on record, which could make erosion worse. The city said Carlsbad came through the Oct. 10 weekend storms without much trouble. One road to Oceanside along the lagoon closed briefly and reopened quickly.
Away from the water, the Village calendar is still on. Halloween in the Village runs Saturday, Oct. 31, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. It includes Candy Stops at Village businesses, carnival activities at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Carlsbad on Roosevelt Street, and a costume contest at Village Faire. The next morning, Nov. 1, the Carlsbad Village Street Faire fills downtown from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The dates to watch on the coast are State Parks' end-of-December target for Tamarack, late 2026 for the boulder wall near Las Encinas Creek, and spring 2027 for the last of the new stairways between Hemlock and Pine.
At Fontaine Realty Group, we track the coastline projects, closures and repair schedules our Carlsbad neighbors ask us about. If you have questions about a stretch of coast near your home, or about a property you're considering along Carlsbad Boulevard, contact us and we'll share what we know.
