The years-long controversy over public access to the Scripps Coastal Reserve in La Jolla looks like it will continue into another year.
UC San Diego — which administers the reserve — and the California Coastal Commission recently agreed to a 90-day extension of the Nov. 12 deadline for the commission to hear the university’s permit application to continue access restrictions at the reserve. A reason for the extension was not given.
The new deadline is Feb. 10, with a review tentatively planned for the commission’s meeting Feb. 4-6.
The application seeks to formalize what UCSD calls “managed access,” which since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic has meant a virtual closure of the scenic 1,000 acres adjacent to the university’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. It seeks continued restricted public access to the site and retroactive approval of the gate used to close it.
When a hearing is eventually held, it will be after roughly six years of the reserve being predominantly closed to the public and after about two years of multiple exchanges of questions and responses between Coastal Commission staff and UCSD over the university’s application.
The reserve, which can be viewed from a half-mile loop trail along what is known as the Mesa across the top of the reserve, has been mostly closed since the beginning of statewide COVID restrictions in March 2020. Volunteer maintenance is allowed from 8 to 10 a.m. Fridays, and a docent-led tour is offered from 9 to 11 a.m. the first Saturday of each month.
Before the restrictions, the reserve was open from 7 a.m. to sunset daily. Now its gate is locked unless tours are being given or the reserve is being used by UCSD students.
A 2023 administrative post on the Scripps Coastal Reserve’s Facebook page said visitors’ misuse of the area was the primary reason for the closure.
That has been disputed by many La Jolla residents, who also point to the California Coastal Act, which requires a coastal development permit for a change of public access to a coastal site. Residents have accused UCSD of violating that law by continuing to limit access without a permit after the state officially lifted its pandemic emergency declaration in February 2023 and not applying for a permit until 2024.
That issue is expected to be addressed when the Coastal Commission reviews the proposal.
Late last year, commission staff said it was likely the application would be considered complete and ready for a hearing by April 1. But early this year, staff extended the hearing deadline to June 30.
Before a hearing could take place, UCSD withdrew its application in April at commission staff’s request to give the university “more time to work through issues concerning coastal resources raised by the application,” including its “consistency with the California Coastal Act,” said Coastal Commission enforcement staff counsel Andrew Willis.
UCSD then quickly resubmitted its application, effectively starting the review process over again, and the Nov. 12 hearing deadline was set.
The university now has the option to withdraw the application again.
The Coastal Commission’s monthly meetings consist of three-day sessions at varying venues. The meeting dates between now and the new February hearing deadline are Nov. 12-14, Dec. 10-12 and Feb. 4-6. There is no meeting in January. The Scripps Coastal Reserve issue is not on the November agenda.
The agendas are posted ahead of each meeting at coastal.ca.gov. ♦