A slide-show presentation on Wednesday, Feb. 7, by three La Jolla Shores Association resident members displayed photos of traffic congestion and erratic drivers along Hidden Valley Road to reinforce an argument against the proposed Chabad Center synagogue project.
The synagogue, an 11,666-square-foot, two-story structure to accommodate a 96-person congregation and 16-student preschool, would be built on a 24,000-square-foot Hidden Valley Road parcel in a single-family residential zone.
A room of nearly 150 residents and an eight-member board voted almost unanimously to deny the project, although reviews by the La Jolla Shores Advisory Board and Permit Review Committee, as well as the La Jolla Community Planning Association, are still required.
“The main issue here is traffic, traffic, traffic,” said Shawn Erickson, a Hidden Valley Road resident. “I can’t even get out of my driveway, and God forbid if I had an emergency and needed to take my baby to the hospital. I don’t want one more car on Hidden Valley Road.”
Resident Isabel Marouf, who lives across the street from the proposed site, agreed with Erickson that the project would generate increased traffic and stated that she feared for the safety of nearly 30 children under the age of 12 who reside in the neighborhood and often walk to the beach or to school.
The Via Capri and Hidden Valley Road intersection can handle 5,000 average daily trips (ADTs) due to road width, but a study done by city engineers in 2004 showed the intersection generated more than 12,000 ADTs, according to Daira Paulson, an Ardath Road resident.
Hidden Valley Road also does not have adequate pedestrian crosswalks or sidewalks and the intersection closest to the proposed project site “” also known as “the throat” “” is the second busiest of its kind in San Diego, Paulson said.
Ron Buckley, who presented the project with architect Ed Laser, told the audience that the 28-car underground parking facility and four-car parking lot would accommodate the maximum amount of people allowed in the facility at one time, but residents said during special occasions the floor plan for the synagogue could hold up to 300 people, causing an overflow of parking onto neighborhood streets.
“Hidden Valley and Ardath roads have no parking along the sides of the street near the project site, so people are going to be parking further up along the streets,” resident Tony Albin, said. “If people are parking at the top of Hidden Valley or Ardath, it’s so narrow that it could block ambulances and fire trucks. I don’t think parking on the site comes close to being adequate, and after a few years, once it picks up, it will be way less than what’s needed.”
Buckley called Albin’s statement “absurd” and said the city is required to allot parking spaces based on the maximum use of the facility.
The size and scale of the project, which would utilize 90 percent of the lot while average houses in the community utilize only 16 percent, is out of proportion with the rest of the neighborhood, resident Rick Adams said.
“Is it a nice building?” Adams said. “Yes. Is it quality? It appears so. But it does not belong here.”
According to Buckley, the project would cover only 40 percent of the lot while the city allows for 60 percent to be utilized. The project stays within the 30-foot height maximum outlined in the community’s planned district ordinance (PDO), he said.
“We are not asking for rezoning of the property or any changes in the land use to put this on the site,” Buckley said. “We are requesting site development and coastal development permits. This will not go to your city council.”
The project will likely not be scheduled for review by the advisory board and the community planning association until three to four more sets of revisions take place, according to project manager Edith Gutierrez of the City of San Diego Planning Department.
It could take anywhere from six to nine months to complete the review, Gutierrez said.
Buckley hopes the process moves at a faster pace and said the project, which needs to go through two additional reviews by the city, may be presented to the permit review board at its Feb. 27 meeting.