The public perception is that much of La Jolla\u2019s public park space lies underwater.
\nThat point was debated at length at a recent La Jolla Parks and Beaches meeting where City park staffers discussed an ongoing update to the citywide parks master plan, which includes La Jolla.
\nThe City got an outpouring of ideas and opinions from La Jollans arguing their community is decidedly “under parked” with its above-ground parks and open spaces.
\nLJPB planners have long held that much of the community\u2019s available park space is in the submerged, 6,000-acre San Diego-La Jolla Underwater Park between Torrey Pines State Reserve and La Jolla Cove.\u00a0
\nOn Oct. 22, Meredith Dawson, Shannon Scoggins and Rosalia Castruita representing the City\u2019s Parks and Recreation Department invited residents to share their views on the quality of La Jolla\u2019s existing park space, vetting where more space could possibly be found.
\n“The City\u2019s parks master plan has not been done since 1956 and we\u2019re now laying out a new plan,” said Dawson. “We\u2019re meeting with stakeholder groups who are invested in local neighborhood parks.”
\n“Park advocates are key stakeholders,” Scoggins told LJPB\u2019s board, adding the objective is to “create a roadmap” guiding parks master-plan revision.
\nScoggins said the City wants to standardize its definition of what a park is, as well as make parks more publicly accessible.
\n“We want people to live a minimum of a 10-minute walk and 20-minute bike ride from meaningful open space,” Scoggins said.
\nAn audience member replied those time intervals might be excessively long for moms with strollers or seniors, adding the City needs to consider the multi-generational needs of park users.
\nResident Gail Forbes inquired if the San Diego Unified School District had been approached about sharing school recreational spaces. Scoggins replied that, with today\u2019s heightened school security, it has become increasingly difficult for the public to use school space without shared-use agreements.
\n“We are the most under parked community in San Diego,” contended LJPB board member Melinda Merryweather. “We need to come up with some more land.”
\nMerryweather suggested Pottery Canyon, a designated City historical site off Torrey Pines Road, would be ideal for a picnic park.
\nLJPB board member Patrick Ahern said pocket parks and view corridors shouldn\u2019t be overlooked.
\nThe Cove\u2019s Coast Walk trail ought to be considered for park space, argued one audience member, to which another replied, “That trail is a dedicated street. The homeowners own the land so it can\u2019t become a park.”
\nAnother resident argued La Jolla needs more off-leash dog space, complaining popular Capehart dog park on Mount Soledad is inadequate.
\nBird Rock resident Sharon Wampler noted the city ought to take a closer look at parklets and remnant lots\u00a0in its quest to find more park space.
\nArchitectural historian Diane Kane said the city ought to consider the historical and cultural resources of parks in its parks master-plan update.
\n“That is what we want to hear,” said Dawson in response to the public\u2019s comments. “We\u2019re going to be fleshing out trends coming from these listening sessions.”
\nLJPB board member Phyllis Minick asked why the abandoned De Anza Mobile Park site isn\u2019t being considered for park space. She was told that site\u2019s future is being debated in the City\u2019s ongoing De Anza Revitalization Plan. One proposal calls for the former mobile home park to be turned into shorefront camping. How much park space is in La Jolla? Addressing the actual amount of public park space in La Jolla, and whether or not any of it is underwater, the City confirmed the community is “under parked,” but said none of its calculated park space is inundated.
\n“Population-based park acreage requirements come from the Recreation Element of the City\u2019s General Plan and are generally made up of community parks, neighborhood parks, mini parks and joint-use areas,” said City spokesperson Tim Graham.\u00a0“We are to provide 2.8 acres of usable parkland per 1,000 residents.”
\nNoting\u00a0useable parkland is generally flat enough for recreational use, Graham said, “In 2106 La Jolla was determined to be 30.51 acres in deficit of useable parkland, and are projected to be 37.66 acres short in 2035.”
\nGraham said La Jolla is a little unusual in that, “There are areas along the coast, such as south of Children\u2019s Pool, that appear to be parkland,” while adding, “But they are actually street right-of-way.\u00a0Those types of areas are not included in the calculations because they are not designated parks.”
\nAdded Graham,\u00a0“Then you have Charlotte Park, which is nothing more than a rocky beach that can only be accessed from the ocean except maybe in an extremely low tide.”
\nGraham said Charlotte Park was likely donated to the City many years ago, and was probably designated as a park because, “There wasn\u2019t any other category it would fit into.”
\n“The San Diego La Jolla Underwater Park is counted toward the City\u2019s overall park acreage, but not towards La Jolla\u2019s population-based park needs,” said Graham, pointing out\u00a0the underwater park is considered more as a regional park because it attracts people from all over, not primarily La Jolla.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The public perception is that much of La Jolla\u2019s public park space lies underwater. That point was debated at length at a recent La Jolla Parks and Beaches meeting where City park staffers discussed an ongoing update to the citywide parks master plan, which includes La Jolla. The City got an outpouring of ideas and […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":266206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"La Jolla looking for park land \u2013 residents suggest parklets and view corridors for more open space","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}