Cowrie and Soledad avenues are tucked away off the beaten path compared with much of La Jolla, but for some residents who live near there, a vacant lot planned for future development holds a world of possibility.
Specifically, those residents hope a pocket park can be established there for people in the neighborhood. Though a portion of the lot is proposed for a small public area, these residents want more.
After three separate hearings as part of the ongoing review of a project to build a 4,494-square-foot house at 1510 Soledad Ave., east of Soledad’s intersection with Cowrie Avenue, a working group was formed this week to explore options.
A new 4,494-square-foot two-story house with a basement and an attached accessory dwelling unit is proposed for a vacant lot at 1510 Soledad Ave. in La Jolla. (Bing Maps and La Jolla Light)
The project proposes that the city of San Diego vacate a section of Soledad Avenue that was originally intended for street purposes and allow the lot to be developed with a new two-story house, a 1,205-square-foot basement and an attached 780-square-foot two-story accessory dwelling unit.
In a street vacation, the city agrees to relinquish a public right of way or public service easement to an adjacent property owner or owners.
Images show a vacant lot on Soledad Avenue where a new house is proposed (left) and a rendering by Island Architects of the planned house. (Screenshot by Ashley Mackin-Solomon)
The project was supported by the La Jolla Development Permit Review Committee during its Sept. 16 meeting.
As part of that hearing, resident Jim Mittermiller said he and other residents “would prefer [that] the city-owned property be a pocket park” instead of being developed for a house, and he expressed concern about the property being “gifted to the developer” as part of the street vacation.
The triangle-shaped lot is overgrown in some areas, and the applicant team from La Jolla’s Island Architects proposes setting aside the tip of the lot near where Cowrie and Soledad avenues split and landscaping it for public use.
“The proposal is to do the best of both worlds,” said Haley Duke of Island Architects.
In addition to development of the house, “a pocket park that is smaller than the full dirt lot would be created” at the applicant’s expense, she said.
Nonetheless, neighbors are hoping a larger portion — if not the entire lot — will be dedicated to public use.
Mittermiller also took his concerns and ideas to the La Jolla Parks & Beaches board during its Sept. 30 meeting, generating an hour-long discussion.
He said the “only real level portion” of the street is the city-owned property that would be vacated as part of the development plan.
“This little triangle of land has been sitting there [vacant]” and residents have raised the idea over the past year and a half of making the entire site a park, Mittermiller said.
“The pocket park would be a place … that just needs landscape and upkeep,” he said. “[But] once this property is gone [to private development], it’s gone.”
He encouraged LJP&B to think about “what is in the long-term interest of the La Jolla community at large” and suggested that the boards reviewing this project “get a feel for what the public really wants … give the public a chance to say ‘We want a little pocket park’ [or] ‘We want some benches and a place where people can … actually sit down and have a conversation.’”
Since there currently are no sidewalks on the street, those looking to chat with their neighbors or other walkers must do so right next to the street, Mittermiller said. The planned project would build a sidewalk.
LJP&B trustee Diane Kane said La Jolla’s Parks Master Plan suggests the city encourage new park spaces “where parks are most needed” and “improve underused sites and infrastructure … to create new green space for recreation and gathering space.” It further encourages establishment of pocket parks.
“There is an opportunity here to add parks to our community, and we shouldn’t be giving it away without a conversation,” Kane said.
Trustee Melinda Merryweather agreed, saying “There are very few of these [properties] left. … I think [we should say] we at Parks & Beaches would love to take the area and make it a pocket park.”
A motion to request that the public right of way adjoining 1510 Soledad Ave. be considered for conversion to a public pocket park passed unanimously, with the request that it be sent to the La Jolla Community Planning Association and the city as part of future reviews of the project.
Additionally, the board voted not to support the vacation of the right of way and requested that the project be returned to the DPR Committee for more review and that the applicant consider redesigning the proposal.
When the project was heard at the Community Planning Association’s meeting Oct. 2, a lengthy debate culminated in the formation of a working group to meet with the architects and neighbors to see if a viable solution can be reached.
The La Jolla Community Planning Association meets Oct. 2 at the Recreation Center. (Ashley Mackin-Solomon)
Other people in attendance joined Mittermiller in speaking against the project, some because of concerns about drainage issues, the precedent the project could set and the sufficiency of public noticing for the plan.
But some LJCPA trustees had questions about whether the city has the right to make the space into a park and whether it would maintain it.
“In my mind, that puts a big question mark over this whole alternate proposal that this space be turned into a park,” said trustee Brian Will, who also is chairman of the DPR Committee.
In the end, LJCPA voted 9-3, with Island Architects on board, to form the working group and have it report back with a fleshed-out proposal at the next LJCPA meeting on Thursday, Nov. 6. Trustees Will, Kevin Leon and Janette Williams voted no. ♦