Planning in La Jolla

by Councilman Scott Peters
February 2002

About a year ago, just after I took office, I wrote a letter to the leaders of the various community groups in La Jolla. I explained how difficult it is for the City Council, and me in particular, to process public input from no fewer than 10 separate groups, especially when those groups were routinely in disagreement. Many La Jollans told me that they agreed that our planning process is broken and needs to be fixed. I asked the leaders to remedy the problem at the community level.

Over the past year, the trustees of the Community Planning Association ("CPA") and the La Jolla Town Council, and the members of Promote La Jolla, Inc., La Jolla Shores Association, Bird Rock Community Council and other groups have spent a great deal of time and effort trying in good faith to combine their efforts. I did my best to steer clear of direct involvement, so that the community could make its own decision about how best to organize. Since the decisions are not binding, but are advisory only, I figured that the community could let go of the old for a better way. Unfortunately, despite hard effort by everyone, the community has not been able to overcome historical divides to reach an agreement.

The recent deliberation over the proposed car wash on Torrey Pines at La Jolla Shores was particularly discouraging for me. The La Jolla Shores Advisory Board, which is designated in the Municipal Code as the body that receives and communicates community input to the Planning Commission for development in the Shores, heard public input, suggestions and objections, and voted for the project by a 4 to 1 vote. The Planning Commission, to which the Municipal Code sends the project for final approval, voted 5 to 1 in favor of the project.

On the other hand, the La Jolla Shores Association opposed the project, as did the CPA. When I looked for the basis of the CPA's objection, the record of the vote said only that the CPA wanted to support the La Jolla Shores Permit Review Subcommittee. A phone call to one of the participants suggested that the reason was "probably" traffic.

This left all of the resolution of issues that can - and elsewhere, do- get handled at the community level for me to resolve at the City Council. My colleagues sat and watched for three hours while I, the opponents and the proponents went over the project issue by issue. The traffic issue ended up being a red herring - an additional 12 cars per day! Finally, I modified the project as approved by the Planning Commission by cutting the hours of the car wash, increasing the landscaping requirements and drastically cutting the amount of planned and existing signage. I did the best I could, but with more focused community input, I'm sure I could have done better.

My colleagues were none too pleased at listening to La Jollans complain about a relatively small facility at what everyone seemed to agree is the nicest looking gas station in the western world. Jim Madaffer expressed anger at having to spend this much time on what should have been worked out beforehand, declaring the La Jolla community planning process "broken." Ralph Inzunza was less upset but saw our community as looking silly, fighting over something he claimed would win an Orchid award if built in the South Bay. I received similar comments from other colleagues in private.

While I was ticked off and embarrassed at the public criticism of my community, I had to agree that the community was not well served by our community structure. In similar cases in the past year, our City Council has acted to fix the community groups where input had become diffuse, unrepresentative or otherwise ineffective. We recently created an entirely new group to give input on Balboa Park's future, and we are in the process of creating a citywide stakeholder group to redo the community plan for downtown San Diego.

I believe the same approach would work for La Jolla, which I believe is no less important to the City than any other asset. This spring, I will introduce legislation at the City Council to reconstitute the La Jolla community planning process. This legislation will not cover the Shores, where the Planned District Ordinance already provides a process. I had expected that the community's reforms would have eliminated this body. Instead, we have appointed two people to the Advisory Board who will provide balance, and I will follow the input process outlined in the law until the law is changed.

For the rest of La Jolla, I will propose a group comprised of some of the current trustees of the CPA, some members appointed by the business community, by the La Jolla Town Council and some by the Mayor and City Council. I will ensure that all of our interests are represented, including environmentalists, "no-growthers," builders, realtors, business operators, historical preservationists and parents. I will provide a process that ensures that a project or proposal only has to answer to one subcommittee and one approving body.

I am most sincerely grateful to those who have worked so hard to improve our community. Now I need to create a planning structure that will ensure that their work is honored, not scorned or laughed at.