Plans for the city of San Diego to vacate a portion of Cuvier Street in La Jolla for redevelopment are moving forward after a vote of the city Planning Commission.

In a street vacation, the city agrees to relinquish a public right of way or public service easement to an adjacent property holder for other use.

The site in question is about 0.43 acres of public right of way on Cuvier east of Prospect Street. The Planning Commission agreed to initiate an update to the La Jolla Community Plan to redesignate 0.25 acres of the land as parks/open space and 0.18 acres as school space.

The proposed redesignations would allow for future expansion of public park use for the La Jolla Recreation Center and school use associated with the adjacent Bishop’s School.

The commission approved the item on its consent agenda Oct. 30 without a presentation or discussion.

The vote only initiates the Community Plan update and does not issue a recommendation for or against any plans for the space. It is not yet known when the plan update may be complete.

As part of a planned renovation of the 110-year-old Rec Center at 615 Prospect St., its portion of the land would get new amenities including a trellis, open space, a bocce court and backboard courts for practicing sports such as tennis.

The Bishop’s School has not confirmed what it would do with its portion, but it is tentatively planned to be a dance studio. Any proposal would go to community review.

During city staff reviews of the redesignation plan, it was determined the street vacation would require an amendment to the Community Plan, according to a letter from The Bishop’s School and the city of San Diego requesting that the amendment be approved.

The 0.43-acre portion of Cuvier Street contains 27 on-street public parking spaces. Because the Community Plan identifies a need to improve the availability of public parking in The Village core and encourages retention of all on-street parking, opportunities to maintain or increase on-street parking will be evaluated further, according to a report to the Planning Commission.

With the amendment, building and site design elements for the space would be reviewed to ensure compliance with Community Plan cultural complex policies and address compatibility with future development, the report states. ♦