The La Jolla Village Merchants Association (LJVMA) supported lifting the summer construction moratorium July 10 to allow redevelopment of the former Jack\u2019s Restaurant site on the corner of Girard Avenue and Wall Street.
\nThe board also heard an urgent plea from those spearheading the La Jolla Children\u2019s Pool Walkway project that it\u2019s “now or never” to come up with funding to construct a sidewalk and other improvements.
\nJon Williams, CEO of Davlyn Investments, which purchased the 30,000-square-foot building at 7863 Girard Ave., currently populated only by Panera Bread, described the seven-month-long planning process to redevelop it as “grueling.”
\n“We\u2019re in the middle of summer and our plan is to open Dec. 1,” Williams told merchants. “We won\u2019t be able to do that unless we start demolition soon.”
\nWilliams said extensive building improvements by previous owner Bill Berkeley will all have to be removed.
\n“We\u2019re doing a luxury retail center and we need to show that during construction as well,” Williams said, assuring the LJVMA board that construction activity would be done “sensitively.”
\nLJVMA chair Phil Coller said the construction moratorium is really a misnomer.
\n“It\u2019s not a moratorium on construction,” he said, pointing out the moratorium is actually on doing anything that would interfere with the public right-of-way or with parking or anything else that would interfere with business activity.
\nNot everyone on the LJVMA Board was immediately onboard with lifting the summer moratorium.
\n“What about the noise factor?” asked board member Nancy Warwick. “I\u2019m concerned about the impacts on adjoining merchants.”
\nSome were supportive of the design, but cautioned that developers should keep La Jolla\u2019s community plan in mind.
\n“I think this would be a tremendous improvement over what\u2019s there now,” said board treasurer Tom Brady, adding he felt it important that other community groups, like La Jolla Community Planning Association, which makes land-use recommendations to the city, get a chance first to weigh in on lifting the construction moratorium since it affects the community plan.
\nA motion by board member Claudette Berwin in favor of the group\u2019s authoring a letter advocating lifting the construction moratorium and allowing Davlyn to begin site demolition as soon as July 15 passed by a wide majority. Patrick Ahern and Phyllis Minick of La Jolla Parks and Beaches, Inc. gave a presentation detailing the status of the La Jolla Children\u2019s Pool Walkway. The walkway is a visionary plan to remodel and re-vegetate the popular coastal attraction above where harbor seals haul out. The walkway is being done concurrently with construction of a new Children\u2019s Pool lifeguard tower, which is underway.
\nBut there\u2019s a snag.
\n“We either raise the money for the sidewalk immediately \u2014 or it\u2019s a dead issue,” said Minick, noting she\u2019s written 22 grant proposals already for funding. “Anything would help,” she said, passing around a giant shoebox for donations. “We\u2019d love to have $100 per person, but we\u2019d be glad to have $1 per person.”
\nAhern, who described the project\u2019s cobbled walls as “the connective fabric through the coastline, said the cost will double over time if construction doesn\u2019t start soon. The fundraising drive for walkway improvements, he said, is a “one-time ask.”
\n“We\u2019re not going to keep coming back asking for money for maintenance,” he said. “This is a project that will last for generations. It\u2019s our jewel.”
\nAhern said walkway improvements are estimated to cost about $250,000.
\nTo date, Minnick said about $8,000 has been raised.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The La Jolla Village Merchants Association (LJVMA) supported lifting the summer construction moratorium July 10 to allow redevelopment of the former Jack\u2019s Restaurant site on the corner of Girard Avenue and Wall Street. The board also heard an urgent plea from those spearheading the La Jolla Children\u2019s Pool Walkway project that it\u2019s “now or never” […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Civic report: La Jolla Village Merchants Association, July 10","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551,11593],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news","category-no-images"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297703","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=297703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297703\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}