The La Jolla Community Planning Association (LJCPA) voted 12-2-1 Nov. 4 to approve a motion that would not support the removal historic homes from their present site on Cave Street near the Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist in order to make way for a 20-space surface parking lot. Attorney Marie Burke Lia presented plans at the LJCPA’s November meeting, and the association spent nearly two hours deliberating and questioning her. The project involves seeking both a coastal development permit to move two structures to a lot at 2503 Ardath Road and a conditional-use permit to add a parking lot to the Cave Street site. Planners say the parking lot would be used for valet parking at night and for local business customers during the day. Under the plan, the homes would be rehabilitated and sold as single-family residences. The project involves two of six cottages in that area, which were deemed historic in 1999. Although the need for parking in the Village was brought up at the meeting, it was outweighed by efforts to keep the cottages intact. Nancy Manno, secretary of the LJCPA, described the cottages as “pristine.” “They are just the type of thing we all wish La Jolla still had,” Manno said. Trustee Tim Lucas was on the dissenting side of the association’s decision, suggesting that moving the homes might prevent them from being neglected. “I’d rather see a parking lot in there than see these [cottages] rot away and then get a three-story office building in there,” Lucas said. But trustee Orrin Gabsch said the homes are “beautifully maintained.” “And even if they stopped maintaining them tomorrow,” said Gabsch. “They’d still look beautiful.”