Architect Trace Wilson is leading a seven-member team in developing an inclusive, long-term master plan guiding future development in the Village of La Jolla.
“In order to make a cohesive public realm with rights of way and complete streets, we’re drafting a comprehensive look at La Jolla from Turquoise Street to UC San Diego and Interstate 5 to the ocean,” said Wilson of the Village Visioning Committee. “The committee’s primary focus will be on the community corridors along La Jolla Boulevard, Pearl Street, Torrey Pines Road, Nautilus Street, and La Jolla Rec Center in the Village’s cultural district.”
Added Wilson: “We’re starting there focusing on rights of way reallocation deep into the future where we can create bike lanes, mid-block crossings, roundabouts where feasible, bulb-outs (traffic calming), and street patterns to create a much better pedestrian-oriented environment. It’s really to create a very long-term vision for La Jolla.”
Public infrastructure improvements spelled out in the master plan being developed can be paid for by local, state, and federal governments. “Then the La Jolla maintenance assessment district can ultimately help to fund and maintain it,” said Wilson.
Enhance La Jolla is a nonprofit run by commercial and residential property owners overseeing the operation of the maintenance assessment district within its Village boundaries. The MAD for the Village of La Jolla was established in November 2016 and began operations in 2019. Enhance La Jolla’s primary goal is to create inviting and appealing public spaces that bring people together and improve their quality of life.
Wilson noted the Village Visioning Committee is not a part of Enhance La Jolla or the MAD but rather is an ad-hoc group of realtors, architects, engineers, and others connected with La Jolla Community Planning Association, which is La Jolla’s land-use advisory group to the City. The Village Visioning Committee was formed about 1 ½ years ago with the aid of planning association president Diane Kane and was charged with developing a macro view of La Jolla.
Wilson said Village Visioning Committee’s design team is “all local and all pro bono.” He added there is no timetable yet for completing the Village master plan. A design charette involving the public and soliciting residents’ views on what should go into the master plan will happen soon once details are worked out.
Assessing the larger picture in creating an overarching master plan, Wilson said the Village Visioning Committee can now plan for multiple modes of transportation including bikes and ebikes, as well as prepare for changes in Village retail.
“We want a vibrant mix of dining and entertainment intermingled with retail in the Village,” said Wilson pointing out La Jolla’s retail environment has changed significantly over the years.
“Back in the ’70s and ’80s, La Jolla went from having department stores like Saks Fifth Avenue, I Magnum, and Walker Scott to having small shops,” he said. “Since then, our notion of what retail really is has disintegrated and changed. And we haven’t kept up.”
Noting La Jolla has had no overall game plan “to attach to over the last 25 years,” Wilson added, “We’ve sort of been waiving our arms in the air talking about things, but nothing’s been specific enough.”
One of the problematic issues with urban planning in La Jolla is that the community’s Planned District Ordinance, according to Wilson, is “so vague and not specific that, if you’re a developer doing a project, you’re lost because there’s really no cohesive urban public realm. So we’re trying to give the City and other agencies a guide to work from.”
Wilson pointed out that, up until now, infrastructure improvement projects have been done piecemeal in La Jolla. But there’s been no grand plan to integrate them into a comprehensive whole.
“We’ve had a lot of small, incremental projects done, a roundabout here, an intersection or a flashing light there, but there’s been nothing that really takes a comprehensive urban design look at everything,” he said. “And that’s what we’re going to do.”
