Bird Rock Plan Moves Forward

by Councilman Scott Peters
October 2002

When I campaigned for City Council over two years ago, and when I walked door to door in Bird Rock, I heard a lot of complaints about La Jolla Boulevard. Residents complained to me that the traffic speeds were unsafe and that the road was unattractive and particularly unfriendly for pedestrians. Over the years, a number of community volunteers had spent time and effort on creating plans for improvement, but they never went anywhere. I decided when I was elected I would try actually to make some progress.

The past 18 months have seen a lot of discussion and more public attention and input than I have seen on any project I've worked on at the City. Very soon, there will be physical, on-the-ground progress. So, at the risk of being redundant, it's a good time to review the history of this effort and let you know what happens next.

In April 2001, I convened a series of evening meetings we called "Bird Rock Week," in conjunction with the Bird Rock Community Council. Over the course of three nights, we addressed design, architecture, traffic and funding, and we came up with an approach to take to the City for approval, incorporating (among other things) diagonal parking on La Jolla Boulevard.

After our plan became public, it drew a tremendous reaction. It was not all favorable, to say the least. On August 1, 2001, we held a meeting of over 350 concerned residents at Bird Rock Elementary, where we heard questions and concerns about the plan. People were open to improving the Boulevard. However, it was clear that, for whatever reason, our efforts to reach out to the public in advance of developing a plan had not been very successful, and many people felt angry that they had not been included. Second, many expressed a strong opinion that the draft plan dealt only with the Boulevard, but not with the neighborhood streets. And third, even though we had worked with the BRCC to create the plan, people suspected it was conceived and driven by City staff. For all these reasons, I readily agreed that we needed more community input and more community control. At the meeting, I invited the Bird Rock community itself to create a plan for traffic in the neighborhood. I asked Brad Raulston, who lives on La Jolla Hermosa and has a professional planning background, to lead a neighbors' task force to deal with traffic.

The Task Force worked over the course of the fall on a number of options, but the participants could not come to consensus. They asked for the assistance of a professional in dealing with traffic issues. In response, and with the support of the BRCC, my office retained Dan Burden of Walkable Communities, Inc. in Florida. Mr. Burden is a nationally renowned authority on walkability and traffic issues. He had dealt with similar issues in cities across the country, and he agreed to convene and moderate two forums for Bird Rock. On April 19 and 20, 2002, Mr. Burden had a public tour of the Boulevard, and made presentations and took input on various options from over 100 residents. On June 8, he returned with a draft plan. Community members made sure that over 1000 flyers were left at the doors of residents in the area, so that everyone would be adequately noticed. Seventy five percent of the participants at the final meeting voted to approve the plan. The plan is posted at www.sandiego.gov/planning.

One of Mr. Burden's recommendations was to create a small resident panel to partner with the City on implementation of the three phases of the recommendations. I asked Pam Wagner to chair and appoint the panel. Pam is a corporate lawyer who lives on Chelsea and is the mother of two small children. She participated on the Task Force and in the forums held by Mr. Burden. I think she is open minded but critical, and I think she will be fair and firm. The residents she appointed to be on the implementation team are Robert Kovelman, Linda Lewis, Paul Metcalf, Manuel Oncina, Jim Neri, Brad Raulston, Shelley Siegan and Chuck Samuelson.

Last week, the implementation team decided to move forward with the first phase of the three identified by Mr. Burden. This means that various residential streets will receive some basic traffic calming measures such as restriping. I am happy to report that you will see these improvements over the next six months. The implementation team will now move on to working on phases two and three.

As you can see, it has taken a long time to get from discussion to implementation to action, and there has been a lot of input along the way. I invite you personally to become informed about what's being discussed by our implementation team. If you know one of your neighbors who is serving on the committee, please ask them your questions and give them your ideas. Pam Wagner also sends out periodic email updating the work of the implementation committee; please send her an email and get on her list so you can hear directly from her (and not from the rumor mill!) what's being discussed. Pam is at pwagner@luce.com. Of course, you can also contact me or Joe Ross at my office.

Some people in Bird Rock still think nothing needs to be done to deal with neighborhood traffic issues. I respect that viewpoint but I disagree. I think La Jolla Boulevard in particular is too dangerous and too unattractive for Bird Rock, one of the nicest neighborhoods in the City. Other people claim they want to deal with neighborhood traffic but seem incapable of offering anything but unproductive criticism. I have made peace with the fact that no plan will please everyone. I find that the vast majority of people in the neighborhood are open to improvement, and some have honest questions about the impacts and implementation of any proposed changes. I hope that you will be informed and involved so that the progress we make will truly and best represent the community.