On Aug. 4, the La Jolla Community Planning Association (LJCPA) voted to recommend the City Council confirm that citywide floor-area ratio (FAR) requirements apply in La Jolla Shores without diminishing the effect of the other provisions in the La Jolla Shores Planned District Ordinance (LJSPDO). FAR is the ratio of a building’s total square footage in comparison to the size of its lot. According to Chapter 13 of the San Diego Municipal Code (SDMC), the permitted FAR of a residential lot that is 10,000 square feet is 0.55, meaning that on a 10,000-square-foot lot, the proposed building must be no more than 5,500 square feet in total. When the LJSPDO was passed in 1974, leaders in the Shores decided not to incorporate the FAR measurement into the LJSPDO requirements. Instead, they decided to use alternative methods to measure and control the bulk and scale of proposed developments in the shores. In a letter by Michael Stepner, author of the La Jolla Shores Precise Plan and the LJSPDO, he explained why the FAR requirement was not incorporated as a tool to guide development in that neighborhood. “Because of the nature of that area, the city’s planning department felt that more specific design guidelines were required to ensure ‘fit’ of new development in the Shores,” he wrote. “Setback and height requirements, coupled with the design guidelines, was a much better tool to ensure ‘unity and variety’ with new projects.” According to LJCPA’s vice president Rob Whittemore, who proposed the motion, the lack of mention of an FAR requirement in the LJSPDO led years of contention. “During the 1980s, people wanted to build larger and larger homes, and they weren’t constrained by FARs, they were constrained by other considerations — compatibility with the neighborhood and other criteria,” he said. “By 1990, there was so much contention that the planning department at the time said, ‘We no longer want to make these discretionary judgments required by the LJSPDO, we want to have a fixed number to go by.’” On Jan. 1, 2000, the LJSPDO was amended to incorporate all of Chapter 13 in the SDMC, including the citywide FAR requirement for all base zones. “For some reason, that was never implemented,” Whittemore said, urging the committee to make another attempt at enforcing the citywide FAR requirements by having City Council first confirm that the FARs do, in fact, apply in La Jolla Shores. Following one and a half hours of debate on the issue, the committee voted 8-5-2 to in favor of Whittemore’s motion. The debate over the adherence of citywide FARs in La Jolla Shores posed a larger question: Is there something wrong with the La Jolla Shores PDO? “I’m not opposed to the motion because I see it as a Band-Aid to fix what is a bigger problem,” said trustee Laura Ducharme-Conboy. “I think the PDO in La Jolla Shores is broken.” Ducharme-Conboy, who designs houses in La Jolla Shores, said she sees no adherence to the LJSPDO’s requirement that the desired character of residences in the area contain “low rambling silhouettes.” “We’ve had what I call bracket-creep. One house gets a little bigger, and the next house — because the PDO says ‘blend in with your neighbors’ – that house gets a little bigger, and the next house gets a little bigger. Before we know it, a large number of houses in La Jolla Shores are bigger than anywhere else in any other neighborhood,” she said. “It’s like we’re left without any protection whatsoever. The city seems to apply the PDO in one way and the community groups seem to apply it in another.” Several La Jolla Shores residents came to the meeting to state their view of the situation in their neighborhood. “I’ve seen a tremendous change in the neighborhood,” said resident and real estate agent Peggy Davis, urging the committee to help scale down the neighborhood starting with the FAR requirement. “I have had at least eight homes that have been built that have problems.” Davis named problems ranging from “massive, monster homes” to illegal front-yard parking to insufficient setbacks on homes in her neighborhood. She detailed a 7,000-square-foot residential home that is currently being built on a 5,400-square-foot lot, blocking sunlight to the neighbor’s home — that of a 90-year-old woman. Trustee Joe LaCava proposed to postpone Whittemore’s motion until there has been proper community vetting on the issue, although the trustees decided to move forward with the original motion. “This needs community input for something this important,” LaCava said for “what is probably the single most important land-use decision in La Jolla Shores.” The committee determined that clarifying the ambiguity of the FAR requirement in La Jolla Shores was only the first step to a bigger problem. Trustees urged La Jolla Shores homeowners to provide feedback regarding the issue of FARs and the LJSPDO by attending the LJCPA or La Jolla Shores Association meetings or contacting committee members. For more information about LJCPA and its subcommittees, visit www.lajollacpa.org, email info@lajolla- cpa.org or call (858) 456-7900.