Refreshing the beach access stairs at La Jolla’s Whale View Point has been talked about for more than a year and planning has been going on behind the scenes, but now the project has backing from the La Jolla Development Permit Review Committee.
The plan is to repair, clean and make the stairs “like new” by installing precast concrete pavers on them.
The stairs, in the 400 block of Coast Boulevard, “are the only ones in the vicinity that go down to the tide pools and the beach there” but they are “really crumbled, rough and eroded,” project volunteer and La Jolla Parks & Beaches President Bob Evans said at the DPR Committee’s Jan. 20 meeting.
Evans said construction of the original stairway was funded by La Jolla philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps in the 1920s “and I don’t think there has been any maintenance or repair in the last 100 years.”
To protect the stairs but make them safer and more comfortable to use, sand would be cleared from the stairway and slurry would be applied to smooth the surface. The precast pavers will be made offsite and and then adhered to the existing steps.
Landscape architect Jim Neri said pavers and bonding material were “selected carefully and through several iterations with the city of San Diego.” They are intended to look similar to what is already there without matching it exactly.
He added that the material “has a lot of strength” to withstand the marine environment.
The DPR Committee voted 4-0 to recommend that the city approve the project. The goal is to begin the repair in the first quarter of the year.
The stairs are included in the La Jolla Park Coastal Historic District, which also encompasses places such as La Jolla Cove, the Children’s Pool, the Casa de Mañana retirement community and the Red Roost and Red Rest cottages. The area, based on an 1887 map of what was called La Jolla Park, includes eight acres of coastal parkland roughly between Torrey Pines Road and Coast Walk in the north and nearly the end of Coast Boulevard in the south.
The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in spring 2024. At a celebration ceremony in November that year, volunteers said they were raising funds to repair the beach access stairs at Whale View Point. An update on the fundraising was not immediately available.
Last August, city representatives met with the volunteer group to review the site’s condition and options for repair, leading to the plan the DPR supported.
San Diego senior planner Mayra Medel, senior heritage preservation planner Suzanne Segur and La Jolla residents Seonaid McArthur and Jim Neri examine concrete paver samples during a visit last August to the Whale View Point stairs. (Bob Evans)
Other DPR news
La Jolla Boulevard lot: A proposal to consolidate three adjacent parcels into one at 6111 La Jolla Blvd. next to La Jolla United Methodist Church was approved on its first review.
Property owner Mariola Stojic said her residence sits on three lots, “so [my family and I] pay three tax bills when the time comes.” Having one house on three lots “is really causing us havoc,” she added.
Thus, she wanted to consolidate the lots into one, with no new construction planned.
The board voted 4-0 to support the proposal.
Coming back: A plan to replace a Muirlands-area house with one nearly double the size will return to the DPR for additional review.
The applicant team seeks to demolish an approximately 2,200-square-foot one-story house and build a new two-story, 4,009-square-foot house at 1067 Muirlands Vista Way. The current house is above street level by way of an elevated driveway. The team plans to bring the new house down to street level and build a basement garage.
The team said the project would have a Cape Cod/beach-themed design.
However, with questions about the side yard setbacks and whether they conform to the neighborhood, plus the drainage plan and how the property relates to its neighbors in size and design, the committee asked the applicant team to return at a future meeting.
Next meeting: The La Jolla Development Permit Review Committee next meets at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 10, online. The agenda will be posted 72 hours in advance at lajollacpa.org. ♦