Which Encinitas 101 Patios Are Here to Stay, and Which Are on a Deadline?

Encinitas has two kinds of outdoor dining, and as of 2025 they follow different rules. Seven restaurants that put tables in their own private parking lots during the pandemic can now keep those patios at their current size with no end date. That is the effect of a state law signed in October 2025. Eighteen restaurants built patios into public parking spaces along Coast Highway 101, and those patios are allowed only through July 1, 2027. Nearly all of the street patios are downtown. Most of the permanent parking-lot patios are in Cardiff and Leucadia.

So the patios most closely tied to downtown's 101 strip are the ones with the shortest guarantee. The city is writing the rules that will decide what they look like next.

Seven patios got a permanent answer in 2025

On October 9, 2025, Governor Newsom signed AB 592. The bill removed the expiration date from a state waiver that lets restaurants turn required private parking into outdoor dining. The waiver started with AB 61 in 2021 and was extended once by AB 1217 in 2023. The city laid out that history in its May 27, 2026 staff report to the City Council.

The city counts seven restaurants using 42 private parking spaces for dining. Three are in Cardiff and use 22 spaces. Three are in Leucadia and use 13. One is downtown and uses seven. The city's permit list names them:

• The Shanty, 126 Chesterfield Drive
• The Besta-Wan, 148 Aberdeen Drive
• Tower 13, 2633 S. Coast Highway 101
• Moto Deli, 190 N. Coast Highway 101
• Corner Pizza, 1246 N. Coast Highway 101
• Cancun Mexican Food, 1766 N. Coast Highway 101
• Herb & Sea, 131 W. D Street

Under AB 592, the staff report says, these seven "are allowed to continue operations at their existing footprint in perpetuity." They pay no annual fee. The protection belongs to the existing restaurant, though. If a future city ordinance limits parking-lot dining, these patios would be treated as grandfathered. If one of these restaurants closes, whatever opens in its place has to meet the parking standards in effect at that time.

Downtown holds 39 of the 47 street spaces

AB 592 does nothing for patios built in the public right-of-way. The staff report says plainly that those patios "are not subject to the waiver of private parking requirements addressed in AB 592." Eighteen restaurants use 47 public parking spaces on Highway 101. Fourteen of them are downtown and use 39 of those spaces. The other four are in Leucadia and use eight.

Restaurants with an active street patio pay the city $2.58 per square foot per month, billed once a year on August 1. Fish 101 is the one exception on the list. Its outdoor dining is paused for streetscape construction, and the city shows no fee for it. The other 17 fees in the city's May 2026 inventory add up to $208,805.43. The individual fees show how much patio each restaurant has. The largest is about six times the smallest.

Most of the list sits along South Coast Highway 101 between the 400 and 1100 blocks, which is the downtown dining stretch. The Roxy, Encinitas Café, Plumeria, The 101 Diner and Q'ero are all within about a block of each other, between 517 and 564. Culture Brewing, Honey's and Biergarden face each other across the 600 block.

The city's list also includes a note next to Encinitas Ale House: "Announced upcoming permanent closure in summer 2027." That is about when the current temporary permission ends.

Six years of "temporary"

Encinitas has extended these street patios several times. Each extension has followed a deadline in state law:

1. May 20, 2020. The council adopted Resolution No. 2020-40. It waived private parking requirements for outdoor dining and allowed tables in public parking spaces.
2. April 27, 2022. The council extended outdoor dining to January 1, 2024, matching AB 61.
3. December 20, 2023. A second extension ran to July 1, 2026, matching AB 1217.
4. August 1, 2024. The street patios started paying a fee of $2.50 per square foot per month. The council had adopted it on June 12.
5. August 1, 2025. The fee rose to $2.58 with the annual San Diego-region inflation adjustment.
6. May 27, 2026. The council voted unanimously to extend both kinds of patios to July 1, 2027. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, council members said this will likely be the last extension.

For the parking-lot patios, the 2026 extension no longer matters much because state law now covers them. For the street patios, it buys about one more year.

What the permanent rules could change

The city is working on a permanent outdoor dining ordinance. Staff had already written a draft, but it had to be revised after AB 592 passed. The new version is expected at the City Council in late 2026 or early 2027. The staff report lists several things the ordinance could do:

• Cap the number of street patios allowed on each block
• Limit patio size, both on the street and in parking lots, except for the grandfathered seven
• Set standards for drainage, noise, signage, structure height, enclosures, materials and storage

The Union-Tribune reported that council members also expect better walls around the dining areas and new requirements covering stormwater runoff and rodent control. The paper reported that Mayor Bruce Ehlers wants the patios to look less temporary and pointed to downtown Oceanside's Mission Avenue, where the sidewalks were widened and restaurants expanded onto them. He told his colleagues:

"I want the council to think permanent when we come back here a year from now."

Restaurant owners spoke at the same meeting. Mark Dobbins, one of the owners of Roxy Encinitas, told the council the patios were "a godsend for us coming out of COVID." The Union-Tribune reported that he also suggested letting restaurant customers park at City Hall on nights and weekends.

A cap per block would matter most downtown, where 14 street patios are packed into a few blocks of South Coast Highway 101. In Leucadia there are four.

The parking argument, measured

Parking has been the argument against the street patios from the start. The Coast News reports that the city has long faced objections from some downtown retailers, who say customers can't park near their stores.

The city hired CR Associates to study the question. The firm counted cars in July 2022, including a Sunday on the Fourth of July holiday weekend chosen to capture the worst case. The Union-Tribune covered the findings in October 2024.

• At peak summer dinner hours, the patios cut into the supply of parking within an eighth of a mile.
• Between an eighth and a quarter of a mile away, the study found "ample parking" even at peak times.
• At times, more than 85 percent of spaces were full downtown and near Moonlight Beach and Beacon's Beach.
• The patios did not appear to have a significant effect on beach-access parking.
• Downtown's two-hour limit on Coast Highway 101 kept spaces turning over faster than streets without a limit.

So the study's answer depends on how far you walk. A space right by your restaurant is hard to find on a July evening. One a few blocks away usually isn't.

The council is looking at options besides removing patios. The Union-Tribune reported that the council discussed a new downtown parking assessment. Councilmember Joy Lyndes, who represents Cardiff, described a Cardiff dentist's office that lets a neighboring bar's customers use its lot at night and on weekends.

Where things stand this fall

The City Council's September 23, 2026 agenda did not include an outdoor dining ordinance, patio design standards or a downtown parking study. The draft is still expected in late 2026 or early 2027. As of October 12, 2026, the July 1, 2027 deadline for the 18 street patios is about eight and a half months away. If the draft arrives in early 2027, the council would have only a few months to review and adopt it before that date.

Some things are already settled. The Shanty and The Besta-Wan in Cardiff, Tower 13, Herb & Sea on D Street, and the three Leucadia parking-lot patios can keep their current footprints. For The Roxy, Biergarden, Encinitas Fish Shop and the other street patios downtown, the coming ordinance will decide how large they can be, how they are built and how many each block can have.

This post explains how state and city outdoor dining rules work in general. It is not legal advice, so restaurant and property owners should confirm their own situation with the city or a qualified professional.

Outdoor dining is part of what living near downtown Encinitas and Cardiff means day to day, and part of what people consider when they look at homes nearby. If you own near the 101 and want to know how these changes could affect your home's value, Adrienne Mineiro can talk it through with you. Let's Connect. Get a free home valuation.