The expensive part of the Del Mar bluffs is finished. SANDAG now lists Phase 5 of the Del Mar Bluffs Stabilization as complete. It and the North County Transit District wrapped up the work in fall 2026, after two years of support columns, drainage, retaining walls, erosion control and native planting between Coast Boulevard and the North Torrey Pines Road bridge. The SANDAG project page puts the cost at roughly $88 million. The public access promised in exchange is estimated at more than $50 million, and it has not been designed yet.
The promised part is still a set of options. The new crossing, the beach path and the formal blufftop trail exist only as alternatives under study. The route of that trail, though, is already being shaped by decisions at private addresses on the numbered streets, weeks before any public outreach. If you walk the paths above the tracks, those small decisions matter more this fall than the finished seawalls.
What the Town Was Promised in Exchange
When the California Coastal Commission conditionally approved Phase 5 in 2022, it attached three public access projects. The seawalls protecting the railroad would cost the town beach, both right away and over time. The access projects were meant to offset that loss. According to the Commission's October 2026 staff report on a Del Mar appeal, SANDAG committed to deadlines for both starting and finishing construction.
| Required improvement | Where | Status as of mid-October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Safe, legal pedestrian rail crossing | 7th Street or 11th Street | Alternatives under analysis |
| Bluff-to-beach accessway | Connected to the crossing | Alternatives under analysis |
| Enhanced blufftop trail | 4th Street to Seagrove Park, east of the tracks | Project Study Report in development |
The Coast News reported in March that the three pieces together are estimated to cost more than $50 million, and that SANDAG must begin implementing them by 2027. According to SANDAG's access improvements page, it spent spring and summer 2026 checking the feasibility of ideas from its 2023 Coastal Connections study. It expects to finish the alternatives analysis in fall or winter 2026 and pair it with public outreach. No meeting date has been posted.
Why the Trail Is the Piece Most Likely to Move First
The three projects are not equally hard. At the March 17 City Council update, SANDAG staff explained the problem: an undercrossing and a path down to the beach would both require major grading into the bluff, and other agencies may not approve that. Program Project Manager Clint Peace called the trail the easiest of the three to build, though the stretch from 11th Street to Seagrove Park is steep and narrow. He said SANDAG was talking with the Coastal Commission about starting the trail sooner while the crossing and beach access are still being worked out.
The Coast News quoted SANDAG CEO Mario Orso on the gap between the conditions and what can actually be built:
"We know what the conditions are — that's very clear. Now our job is figuring out if we can get there, and if not, finding a middle ground."
Orso said any final plan needs agreement from the City of Del Mar, NCTD as owner of the rail line, the Coastal Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission. A crossing over or under the tracks needs every one of those approvals. A trail on the landward side of the tracks needs fewer, and the Commission already evaluated and authorized formalizing the informal paths between Seagrove Park and 4th Street in 2022, specifically to speed things up if SANDAG chooses that route.
That makes the trail the piece most likely to show up first. It also means the trail's exact line matters now.
The Route Is Being Settled at Individual Addresses
The trail has to fit somewhere. According to the Coastal Commission staff report, the planned alignment runs through stretches where private improvements have crept into the NCTD right-of-way, and the Coastal Connections study flagged those stretches as major obstacles to siting the trail. Two recent decisions show how that plays out.
- 101 11th Street. On August 25, 2026, the Del Mar City Council adopted Resolution 2026-53 on its consent calendar. The resolution accepts an irrevocable offer from the property owner to dedicate a public pedestrian access easement across the parcel, according to the council minutes. It secures a legal right for people to walk there at one of the town's most-used bluff access points.
- A 6th Street bluff-edge lot. On June 30, 2026, the city approved a project to replace an existing chain link fence, about three feet tall, on leased NCTD land west of a 6th Street home with a five-foot transparent glass fence and gate. Commissioner Ann Notthoff and Vice Chair Caryl Hart appealed. The Commission staff report recommends finding a substantial issue and scheduled the appeal for the Commission's October 8 hearing.
Staff's reasoning on the 6th Street appeal applies to the whole trail. At that lot, the report expects the trail to follow an existing public path inside the NCTD right-of-way, above the tracks and next to a concrete drainage swale. Because the trail is not finished, staff wrote, approving or formalizing private improvements along that line could close off options for building, maintaining and adapting it. The Golden Coast Journal covered the staff recommendation ahead of the hearing. The Commission's meeting agenda page lists the item and links the staff report.
Put the two cases side by side. An easement adds a guaranteed walking right at 11th Street. Staff's view is that a fence permit like the one at 6th Street could narrow the space the trail needs. SANDAG has not published a design for either block. Even so, the line the trail can follow is being settled one parcel at a time.
Two Different Fences at 11th Street
The word "fence" carries some history on the bluffs, and two separate cases tend to get mixed together.
The first was the corridor-wide fence. NCTD proposed a 3,723-foot fence, four to six feet tall, along the tracks. It dropped that plan after a September 19, 2024 settlement with the Coastal Commission. As the Coast News reported, the settlement allows a low-profile design instead: three-foot wooden pylons connected by steel cable. Councilmember Terry Gaasterland said the agreement let the agencies work together without a long chain-link or hog-wire fence.
The second is the temporary closure at the west end of 11th Street. During construction, people kept reaching the beach there by crossing the new concrete drainage channel and then the tracks to a "goat trail" down the bluff face. In March, SANDAG said it would fence that access for at least a year because fall protection still had to go in at the channel's highest point. Peace said, "We do reiterate that this is an active construction site, and it's for the public's safety," and added that the goal was not to stop people from crossing the tracks entirely. The Coast News reported that members of the 11th Street Surf Club and other regulars objected, and one daily surfer pointed out that access two streets north at 13th Street stayed open.
SANDAG gave a minimum of a year from March, which would run into spring 2027. That is about when the access projects are due to begin. The August easement at 101 11th Street lands right in the middle of that window.
Where the Walk Starts Today, and What Comes Next
The Commission staff report describes the area as it stands. Public parking for the bluff and the beach is at Powerhouse Park, Seagrove Park, and on the west ends of 6th through 13th Streets. A network of informal paths runs alongside the tracks, two informal trails drop down the bluff face, and people have walked here since the rail line opened in 1910. SANDAG's 2023 Coastal Connections study names just two roadway crossings into that stretch: Coast Boulevard near Seagrove and Powerhouse parks, and North Torrey Pines Road near Torrey Pines State Beach. SANDAG says that many people currently reach the beach by walking into the railroad right-of-way, and that crossing or walking near the tracks is a safety concern for pedestrians and for passenger and freight trains alike.
Here is what to watch over the coming months:
- SANDAG's outreach, expected in fall or winter 2026 once the alternatives analysis is done. The 2023 study showed the community a broad range of concepts, and this round is meant to gather feedback on the alternatives that came out of SANDAG's feasibility work.
- The Project Study Report, which the Commission says will capture design options worked out with the city and NCTD. Additional Commission review may be needed depending on which designs are chosen.
- Del Mar City Council consent calendars, where items like the 11th Street easement can pass with no separate discussion.
- The longer-term rail realignment. SANDAG's realignment page, updated September 2, 2026, says technical studies are underway and no preferred alignment has been selected.
If you own on one of the numbered streets near the bluff and want to understand how an easement, an NCTD lease or the planned trail fits into your property's value, The Bragg Team can walk through the public record with you parcel by parcel. This is general information, not legal advice, so please confirm anything specific to your property with a real estate attorney. When you're ready, Get Your Home Valuation.
