La Jolla development permit reviewers approve projects in Muirlands and Country Club areas

Two development projects — one to tear down and rebuild a house in the Muirlands area and the other a home project in the Country Club area — got the La Jolla Development Permit Review Committee’s approval during its April 20 meeting.

The slightly more controversial of the two was a substantial conformance review for a property at 7362 Brodiaea Way, next to an entrance to La Jolla Heights Natural Park in the Country Club area. DPR approved a previous permit application for the property in December 2018 and the La Jolla Community Planning Association followed suit in February 2019.

However, since it was approved, the applicants changed the plans to relocate a proposed driveway and make the garage a completely underground structure within the approved building envelope. In its most recent review, DPR was tasked with determining whether the changed project conforms to the previously approved permit.

The project’s floor area ratio (a building’s floor area in relation to the size of the lot) would be reduced, the landscaping plan is the same and, while there is a minor increase in the height of the center of the building, it all remains under 30 feet, in accord with the coastal height limit.

But issues remained in regard to the driveway and retaining wall.

Applicant representative Roger Sammon of Island Architects said the height of the retaining wall is the same as in the previously approved design, but DPR trustee Diane Kane said the wall “smacks me in the face” and that the previous rendering had vegetation to break up the appearance. “It’s shocking,” she said.

Architect Lisa Kriedeman said the applicants could “do something with the look of the wall” with planting.

DPR trustee Angeles Leira had concern with the look and material of the driveway. She said reconsideration of the driveway material from concrete or asphalt to something more permeable could “maintain some of the feel of the original project by using a different material on the driveway that brings texture to that driveway and break up the appearance of the wall with landscaping. You can play the numbers game … but I am looking at the feel of the area. I think you could do better and mitigate the impacts that putting the driveway there will have.”

The applicants said they don’t intend to use asphalt or concrete but couldn’t say yet what material they would use.

Trustee John Fremdling called the house “a work of art” in the rendering and said it was a “handsome project.”

A motion that the project substantially conforms to the previously approved permit passed, with Leira dissenting.

The other project, at 6361 Hartley Drive in the Muirlands area, passed unanimously. The proposal includes demolishing a one-story, 3,770-square-foot single-family residence and building a new two-story, 6,699-square-foot single-family residence with an attached garage over a 1,649-square-foot basement. It also includes a detached 531-square-foot accessory dwelling unit, a pool and site improvements.

The findings proceed to the Community Planning Association for ratification.

The La Jolla Development Permit Review Committee meets the second and third Tuesdays of each month. The next meeting is at 4 p.m. May 11 online. Learn more at lajollacpa.org. ◆