Concerned with drainage issues and potential safety hazards at Roseland and Spindrift drives, La Jollan Kurt Hoffman got the La Jolla Shores Association’s support for several proposals March 18 for possible additions to an ongoing project for underground utility lines.
A total of 37 streetlights were installed last year as part of the city of San Diego undergrounding project from La Jolla Shores Drive west to the ocean and from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography south to Avenida de la Playa.
Zach Barhoumi, a senior civil engineer for the city, said at last month’s Shores Association meeting that the next step will be placing 4½ miles of pavement overlay, a half-mile of concrete replacement and a half-mile of slurry seal. Also part of the plans is the addition of 29 disabled-accessible curb ramps.
The overall cost of the curb ramps and street work — with additional construction on La Jolla Parkway, Hidden Valley Road and Via Casa Alta as well as in parts of Clairemont — is $14.55 million. Paving and curb ramp installation is expected to start in summer 2027 and wrap up in fall 2028, subject to changes.
Hoffman proposed also adding ramps on the downhill portion of Roseland Drive and Spindrift Drive, as well as other disabled-access improvements.
Hoffman also requested:
• Placing a drainage basin uphill with piping underneath to redirect groundwater and ease what Hoffman said is “a slip-and-fall hazard” and “a serious liability to the city”
• Installing a new concrete sidewalk with red curb paint around an existing fire hydrant at the end of Roseland Drive at Spindrift
• Adding trash and recycling containers there and posting a sign with “marine life protected area regulations”
“The city needs to address this liability of the slip and fall,” Hoffman told LJSA. “This is a very minor way of addressing it, but it could save the city millions because it’s so slippery.”
A rendering from Kurt Hoffman depicts his proposals for the end of Roseland Drive at Spindrift Drive, including a new sign, red curb paint and trash and recycling containers. (Photo by Noah Lyons)
The board offered broad support for Hoffman’s proposals, voting 8-1 to write a letter to the city endorsing adding them to the undergrounding project.
The lone dissenting vote came from board member Kathleen Neil, who said that while she’s “completely on board” with the ideas, “I don’t think the letter is the right way to do this.”
Adding the requests to a capital improvement project already underway may lead to the proposals falling on deaf ears, Neil said. Instead, she recommended that Hoffman try to get the measures added to the CIP list on their own.
Hoffman responded that it’s worth trying to get his proposals added to the current project and that it’s important to get the concerns on the record with the city.
LJSA President John Pierce suggested “We can do it in the CIP budget list when it comes next year, but we can also write a letter. If it doesn’t get anywhere, so be it.”
Other LJSA news
Board election: With seven candidates vying for seven available seats on the LJSA board, everyone who ran this year will be a trustee.
Incumbents Neil, Mike McCormack and Ed Mackey will serve again, with Mackey continuing former member Alina Mullen’s term, which has two years left. The others will serve three-year terms.
Other newly elected members are Ross Rudolph, a La Jolla Traffic & Transportation Board member and former LJSA trustee; Megan Guy, a La Jolla native who said her focus is on safety and being an active part of the community; Sepi Gilani, a 10-year La Jolla resident and an otolaryngologist at UC San Diego; and Nick Lynk, an Illinois-born engineer who has lived in La Jolla Shores the past six years.
Anti-‘Turquoise Tower’ campaign: Marcella Bothwell, chairwoman of Neighbors for a Better California, which has been a leader in a fight against a proposed 239-foot-tall residential-commercial building in north Pacific Beach dubbed by locals as the “Turquoise Tower,” shared an update about the controversial project at the March 18 LJSA meeting.
Protesters hold signs at an Oct. 9 rally outside the Pacific Beach/Taylor Library opposing a planned 239-foot-tall residential-commercial building in north Pacific Beach. (Noah Lyons)
Bothwell said her group is seeking $150,000 for what it calls a “legal war chest” as it prepares for the possibility of a “heated battle” with the developer, Kalonymus LLC.
In January, the San Diego Development Services Department determined “the project cannot be approved at this time” because of “insufficient and incomplete information” in the permit application.
Seeking to take advantage of the break in the proposal’s momentum, Neighbors for a Better California has retained legal counsel to review documents and write letters to applicable city departments.
Bothwell told LJSA that should any of the 38 permits being reviewed in association with the project be approved and the project be cleared to proceed, her group would file for a court injunction and take additional legal steps, including a lawsuit.
Bothwell’s presentation was an information-only item on the agenda, and LJSA took no action. Shores resident Janie Emerson proposed that the topic return as an action item.
Next meeting: The La Jolla Shores Association next meets at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 15, at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Martin Johnson House, 8840 Biological Grade. Learn more at lajollashoresassociation.org. ♦