Not everyone is impressed by World Oil Marketing Company’s plans to build a two-story, nearly 7,000-square-foot office building at the corner of Sunset Cliffs Boulevard and Voltaire Street in Ocean Beach. The Ocean Beach Planning Board (OBPB) approved the proj-ect a regular session Dec. 3. But unless project planners work with the planning board’s recommendations, the aesthetically dubbed “Sunset Plaza” could forever be known as “Butt-Ugly Plaza” if approved by the city as is, according to OBPB chair Landry Watson. According to Watson, the OBPB sent the project on to the city’s Planning Commission with two recommendations: • that the top of the building be made to look nicer, and • that the building is constructed and maintained using environmentally friendly practices. “It’s incumbent on project planners to make the changes to please us (the OBPB),” Watson said. Watson said if the project builders don’t want to cooperate, he might officially appeal the project. City project staff can still approve the project without the suggested improvements, he said. Watson said constructing and maintaining the building with environmentally sustainable practices like installing photovoltaic solar panels and avoiding the “blocky” features of the current proposal would be a good start to working with the community. World Oil Marketing Co. has been trying to build a gas station on the corner for several years. The currently empty, fenced-off site sits “catty-corner” to the Ocean Beach People’s Organic Food Market, 4675 Voltaire St., along one of the major thoroughfares in the community. It became the site of a makeshift “people’s garden” maintained by neighbors. The original plans for a gas station met with some resistance from the community because some residents didn’t want another gas station in the area, according to Watson. When the gas station project was rejected, a literal grassroots movement effectively adopted the concrete and asphalt corner, resulting in a community park that sprouted from the rubble. The World Oil Marketing Co. later removed the unsanctioned park to the community’s dismay, Watson said. The South Gate-based gasoline and petrol-products distributor brought the gas station proposal back before the city in 2004. The proposed project, however, was withdrawn by World Oil for unspecified reasons, according to city of San Diego project manager Morris Dye. Now that the company has acquired the Dover Plumbing and Heating building adjacent to the site at 4820 Voltaire St., World Oil is proposing to build commercial office space with some pedestrian-friendly landscaping and a possible eatery, Watson said. Parking restrictions may prevent other future uses, according to city staff. Leslie Burnside, the representative for the World Oil project was “not authorized” to speak to the press about the project, she said. A date has not been set for when the project comes before city staff for approval, according to project managers. The Ocean Beach Planning Board meets every first Wednesday of the month at 6 p.m. in the Ocean Beach Recreation Center, 4726 Santa Monica Ave. The board acts as an advisory board to the city on land-use and development planning.