Traffic board expels UCSD students from stretch of La Jolla Scenic North

At its June 20 meeting at the Rec Center, the La Jolla Traffic & Transportation Board recommended a two-hour parking limit, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday, for the northbound section of La Jolla Scenic Drive North between Scenic Place and Sugarman Drive.

Resident Carol Hernstad championed the action due to what she characterized as UC San Diego students parking along the street all day, and speeding along it to get to and from the spaces. She said she approached UC Regents about the shortage of student parking “and they were not interested in hearing it.”

A neighbor of Hernstad’s attended the meeting specifically to object to the measure, saying of the traffic problem: “You’re just going to move it to another location.”Hernstad ignored the neighbor, telling the board: “Our street is a ridiculous thoroughfare off the freeway and, for that reason, we should have more limitations than the other streets, which are just neighborhood roads.”

The board agreed, passing the action unanimously. The recommendation goes to the La Jolla Community Planning Association, which next meets July 5.

Acting chair Brian Early added: “We’re hoping UCSD builds some more parking.”

Also at the meeting, the board quickly approved an all-way stop at the intersection Olivetas Avenue and Sea Lane, which the City had already endorsed at the request of resident Ira Parker. (Board member Tom Brady told the Light that not originally making that stop four-way was “an oversight.”)

A request by San Diego Sports Medicine Foundation for temporary no parking on Coast Boulevard adjacent to Scripps Park was unanimously approved for the 17th annual Taste of the Cove, which takes place Sunday, Aug. 29.Finally, the board moved for a continuance to next month to decide on a request to prohibit a right turn from northbound Torrey Pines Road to Roseland Drive from 4-7 p.m. weekdays. This would allow presenter Karen Marshall to produce a petition showing that 75 percent of her neighbors both approve of the measure and are aware that it also prohibits residents from turning right on the street. Marshall was asked to present the petition to the board at this meeting, but did not.

— The La Jolla Traffic and Transportation board next meets at 4 p.m. July 18 at the La Jolla Rec Center, 615 Prospect St., manana@san.rr.com