Same story, different project On Feb. 6, the San Diego City Council (SDCC) voted 7-1 to approve the construction of a new home at 8490 Whale Watch Way in La Jolla. Its vote denied an appeal brought on by the La Jolla Community Planning Association, a group in which District 1 City Councilwoman Sherri Lightner was a former trustee prior to being elected to the SDCC. The City Council’s vote certified that the project’s negative declaration would have no significant impacts on the environment, as well as finding that an environmental impact report for the project would not be required. The project is the first North American project by internationally acclaimed architect Zaha Hadid. Hadid’s 350-person architectural design firm is headquartered in London. In 2004, Hadid became the first female recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, architecture’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize. In 2006, Hadid was honored with a retrospective spanning her entire work at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. In 2008, she ranked 69th on Forbes’ “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.” The 2010 TIME 100 issue named her as one of the world’s most influential thinkers and in the same year, the British magazine, New Statesman listed her in “The World’s 50 Most Influential Figures 2010.” Despite overwhelming support by the SDCC, city staff, and unanimous approval from the San Diego Planning Commission, Lightner was the lone vote opposing Hadid’s project. As the council debated the project, Lightner sensed support growing against the unsubstantiated appeal by her local community group. She nevertheless continued to support the appeal with irrational arguments such as, “Due to the prominence of Zaha Hadid, the project would create traffic problems in the neighborhood.” Additionally, Lightner implored, “Residents have found Indian remains while transplanting Rose bushes in this neighborhood,” despite contrary evidence from the state of California and her own city staff. Now, attorney Julie Hamilton, a familiar litigant associated with nonprofit groups in La Jolla, has filed yet another lawsuit. The list of groups that Councilwoman Lightner has supported and Hamilton has represented include Taxpayers for Responsible Land Use (Hillel Student Center), Save La Jolla (Cardenas’ Patio), and La Jolla Shores Tomorrow (Whitney Residence). Hamilton’s suit seeks to overturn the 7-1 vote by Lightner’s colleagues. Hamilton’s cases are so predictable that she only has to cut and paste from the above mentioned cases to file the lawsuit against Hadid’s project. It is sure to read something like this, “The project is simply too different and the city, in passing it, failed to consider impacts associated with the project to traffic, aesthetics, the environment and land use, particularly archaeology. The project simply isn’t compatible with this area.” Ms. Lightner, I ask you as a 40-year resident of La Jolla to please stop supporting groundless appeals and groups that use our court system and the CEQA review process to circumvent the approval process and community plans in La Jolla. — Bob Whitney, Member of the La Jolla Association