After a brief discussion at the La Jolla Community Planning Association’s meeting this week, a project to build a mixed-use complex on La Jolla Boulevard at the former site of the Su Casa restaurant got the board’s support.
The proposal would subdivide two parcels at 350 Playa del Sur and 6738 La Jolla Blvd. into nine lots. The La Jolla Boulevard lot is the former Su Casa site. The Playa del Sur property is the former site of a residential building.
The plan includes eight detached residential units with seven basements that could be used as accessory dwelling units, along with a mixed-use building with 801 square feet of retail space and one residential unit. The unit facing La Jolla Boulevard is planned for about 1,700 square feet. The size of the other units would range from 1,900 to 2,800 square feet.
The site on La Jolla Boulevard where Su Casa restaurant once stood (center) is planned for a new development. (Ashley Mackin-Solomon)
The applicant team gave a brief presentation at the Jan. 7 LJCPA meeting reflecting ones given to some of LJCPA’s subcommittees, focusing on answering questions from the board and others in attendance.
Question topics included landscaping in the public right of way and how the basements were designed to prevent flooding in case of heavy rain.
Landscape architect David McCullough said the Mexican palm trees that line the La Jolla Boulevard side of the project would remain. “We want to keep just this batch [of trees] … but no new palm trees,” he said.
Jacarandas would be planted on Playa del Sur.
Board member Mary Soriano said houses in the area “have had consistent basement floods” when it rains, and she asked the applicant team to explain the drainage plan.
Architect Doug Austin of San Diego-based AVRP Studios said “that is something we have to take very seriously.”
He added that his firm designed projects in downtown San Diego that were similarly subject to flooding but never have. “So it’s possible to do it if you do it right,” he said. He did not provide details.
After the conversation went into topics such as who is responsible for picking up fallen palm fronds, trustee Brian Will said “It’s [apparent] there aren’t any glaring issues with the project at hand” and recommended the board vote on the development.
The trustees quickly voted unanimously to recommend that the city of San Diego approve the project.
The vote concluded a series of local reviews of the plan in recent months.
In November, the project went before the La Jolla Planned District Ordinance Committee and the Development Permit Review Committee. The PDO Committee voted to support the project, while the DPR asked the applicant to return with more information before taking a vote.
During those hearings, Austin said he drew inspiration from famed local architect Irving Gill for the frontage facing La Jolla Boulevard, with arches and white exterior finishes.
The nine residential units vary in design, “but you can see some of Gill’s influence in this,” Austin said. The exterior of the properties would feature wood and glass and follow “the idea to keep the architecture simple and decorate with nature,” he added.
When the applicant team returned to the DPR on Dec. 16, the committee voted 7-1 to support the project. ♦