Andy Field, newly appointed City Parks and Recreation Department director, visited La Jolla Shores Association Nov. 13 to fill community planners in on latest developments with Kellogg Park security and other shoreline parks issues.
Field defined shoreline parks as “everything on the beach in the interface area between the shoreline and the water.” He noted, “We only have two park rangers covering 13 miles of shoreline from Sunset Cliffs through La Jolla.”
Fields pointed out LJSA’s parks coverage area includes Cliffridge Park near Torrey Pines Elementary School and the La Jolla YMCA, and Allen Field soccer and baseball fields at 3908 Torrey Pines Road.
Marilyn Stern, district manager for City parks, noted Cliffridge “is operated and maintained by nonprofit organizations, not City staff. We’re very grateful to have nonprofits doing that, but they may not have daily knowledge of everything that goes on there.”
Field noted Laureate (Mata), the public pocket park on Avenida de la Playa between Paseo del Ocaso and El Paseo Grande, is also a part of the Shores shoreline park mix. “Laureate is just a passive lawn area that doesn’t have much in the way of park amenities,” noted Field adding, “You can’t build or put anything on it, like swing sets because there’s a sewer pump station on the property.”
Turning to Kellogg Park, there have been security issues there for some time with the parking lot not always being locked as required at 10 p.m., and with park users staying after-hours and driving on the lawns. LJSA planners have been concerned, pointing out there are four sides to Kellogg Park that vehicles can escape through. They’ve proposed that a combination of benches, sculptures, trees or large rocks could be used to shut down vehicular access after-hours.
“We would like to try and have some kind of barrier there to prevent people from driving out of the parking lot,” said LJSA board member Ross Rudolph. “We need a sign saying, vehicles left in the parking lot may be cited and towed.”
“We have peace officers going in there a couple of times a week and citing large vehicles that are left there, but they can’t do that on a regular basis,” said LJSA chair Janie Emerson. “Right now they don’t have the people to do that.”
“We could put additional trees and boulders in the parking lot between the street and the parking lot and put in bollards,” suggested Field. “That would prevent people from driving on the turf.”
“Rather than bollards, I’d like to see more boulders,” said LJSA board member Mary Coakley Munk. “If you put boulders on top of turf, they won’t be able to go around it.”
Responding to LJSA board member Terry Kraszewski’s query about the use of Roundup weed killer in shoreline parks, which is alleged to be carcinogenic, Field replied, “We’re looking into a pilot study using more natural chemicals to suppress weeds. We’re going to be using that in some inland and shoreline parks, and if it suppresses the weeds, we’ll expand it elsewhere in the City.” In other action: • City senior civil engineer Ana Del Rincon told community planners utilities undergrounding of Block 1J in the Shores “will underground four miles of overhead lines and include 28 new ADA curb ramps.” Del Rincon said undergrounding is anticipated to be finished by summer 2020. LJSA chair Emerson warned Shores seniors are concerned about having access to their dwellings blocked. Del Rincon assured her there will be proper notification with door hangars listing emergency numbers to be contacted.
