Amendment to accommodate ESHA denied — Trustees rejected the city’s requested amendments to the La Jolla Community Plan to establish an environmentally sensitive habitat area at Children’s Pool beach in a 9-6-1 vote. Despite several attempts to help shape alternative language for the city moving forward, no other motions were passed.
Some trustees expressed frustration the changes were imposed on the local planning group by the city. “The community plan is very specific about what needs to be done with the resources we have,” said trustee Tom Brady. “There’s a lot more to amending a community plan than just a two-week notice the city gave us to amend our plan. I think it’s just absolutely wrong.”
Although LJCPA vice president Joe LaCava said the city is going through the appropriate process for a discrete community plan amendment, Brady said he is frustrated that other proposed community-generated amendments have fallen by the wayside.
“To change the community plan is a very extensive process. The preparation of changes and the activation of the community plan is a hell of a process,” said Brady. “There’s an accumulation of seven or eight items that should be at the top of the list that I think the community should be addressing instead.”
Although trustee Ray Weiss agreed that the changes are imposed on the local planning organization, he also believes the future of the beach is out of the local community’s control and, instead, in the hands of state and federal law.
“This is a way of the city covering its rear end by having the community plan conform to what they have to do anyway,” he said. “This is something that is in the community plan not because the community supported it, but because it has to be in there for the community plan to be consistent with regulations.” Development projects move forward — Despite some concern by neighbors about the impact on parking on Kearsarge Road, the 1644 Crespo Drive project involving a 700-square-foot detached guest quarters on a 0.2-acre site was approved by trustees. The project stretches from Crespo Drive to Kearsarge Road with the guest quarter construction closer to Kearsarge Road. News from La Jolla’s civic organizations — The city’s planning groups will again have the opportunity to provide input for the city’s fiscal year 2015 public infrastructure budget. The LJCPA will begin the input process at July’s meeting, where all La Jollans and La Jolla organizations are welcome to submit suggestions for infrastructure projects to prioritize in the community.
• The city is ready to sign off on LJCPA’s bylaw amendments, which were approved by the planning group members in March. “We did have to make some minor changes to the language of the bylaws that the city found were a little confusing or wanted to be worded,” said LJCPA Vice President Joe LaCava. “The essence of what we did has been preserved in its entirety.”
The bylaws will be brought to the trustees at next month’s meeting for final review.
• The LJCPA passed a motion requesting the city refrain from removing heritage trees until the community group has had an opportunity to provide its input. The motion came as a result of a heritage tree that was removed at 7850 Ivanhoe St. because it was causing damage to the sidewalk. Although the Planned District Ordinance Committee recommended removal of the tree in April, the LJCPA did not get the opportunity to review the project before the tree was removed.
The next La Jolla Community Planning Association meeting will take place July 10, due to its regularly scheduled meeting falling on a holiday. Minimally invasive sewer rehab projects in the pipeline — Two trenchless sewer rehabilitation projects will take place throughout La Jolla starting this winter and last about a year. The combined projects include rehabilitation more than 12 miles of sewer lines, manholes and laterals in La Jolla and University City. The construction and traffic impacts for both projects are expected to be minimal.
“The way the construction goes with the trenchless is that they open up the manholes, and they insert a sort of huge tube through the manhole, then they insert the product through the tube. That product impregnates the tube and the tube gets bigger and bigger and it shields the pipe from inside,” explained city project manager Maryam Liaghat.
Although a slight odor might emanate from the site, the product is safe and has been approved by the Occupational Safety and Health Organization. Good retaining walls make good neighbors — After working with concerned neighbors to mitigate concerns over a shared retaining wall structure for a project at 1545 Virginia Way, architect Tim Golba not only received an ovation from LJCPA trustees, but also praise from the neighbors, who withdrew their objections to the project. “I want to acknowledge Mr. Golba, who has been incredibly collaborative and has worked with our team. He has promised to work with us in the future, and I just want to say that he has been a perfect gentleman,” said neighbor Donald Kearns. “The process works.” After three visits to the Development Permit Review Committee, Golba’s project was approved unanimously. Because he was in dialogue with neighbors to mitigate issues on the project, Golba requested that the project be trailed twice in order to find the best solution for both parties, which they eventually did.
“We had a great dialogue with our consultants and their consultants, and everything is resolved,” he said. Trustees reject city’s CDP due to ‘absurd’ timing — Trustees rejected the city’s application for a coastal development permit to close Children’s Pool beach from sunrise to sunset until May 15, 2013 on the grounds that “the timing is absurd.” The permit was already granted after Mayor Bob Filner’s declaration of an emergency at the site. Although the cut-off date has already passed, regulations require that emergency CDPs be replaced with a standard CDP.