Street closure guidelines for special events get support from La Jolla Community Planning Association

An effort to draft guidelines for special events that require street closures got the La Jolla Community Planning Association’s support during its Oct. 6 meeting.

Last month the issue was pulled from the group’s consent agenda (which is intended to be approved without discussion) by an unidentified member of the public for a full review this month, citing “pending litigation.” The La Jolla Traffic & Transportation Board recommended the guidelines for criteria, standards and administrative protocols for permit requests that involve temporary street closures for private special events.

However, LJCPA trustee Greg Jackson said this month that the person “hasn’t said a word since.” T&T Chairman Brian Earley added that the person “never responded” to further inquiries.

Earley said the T&T Board set up “four easygoing recommendations for special events that require street closures.” The four guidelines are:

• Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day are to be blacked out (not the weekends around them, just the actual holidays). Those dates are in addition to already-determined city blackout dates when events will not be approved due to the commitment of public safety resources such as traffic control and police officers elsewhere.
• All processions must use a “short-term street closure,” with San Diego police opening streets and parking as an event rolls through.
• Applicants are asked to connect participating hotel staff and event organizers with the T&T Board for confirmation of event times “to assure mitigation of conclusion of the procession.”
• Processions should be limited to two hours.

The guidelines were refined after T&T discussions and input from the San Diego Special Events & Filming Department, which ultimately approves permit applications for such events.

The recommendations stemmed from two requests earlier this year for road closures for private events — one on Memorial Day, May 30, and the other on June 25, a Saturday.

Each was a baraat, a procession in an Indian wedding during which the groom rides a horse or an elephant to the ceremony, accompanied by his family members.

Given that both baraats took place on days when tourists normally flock to La Jolla, the road closures prompted concerns from T&T members about effects on traffic and parking.

With no opposition from the public, the Community Planning Association board voted unanimously to support the T&T guidelines, with acting President Bob Steck customarily abstaining.

Other LJCPA news

New logo: LJCPA is working on a redesign of its logo to be used on all official correspondence and its website. The board was presented with four proposals during the Oct. 6 online meeting and will vote via a poll of trustees in coming weeks.

This is one of four options for a possible new logo for the La Jolla Community Planning Association.

(Screenshot by Ashley Mackin-Solomon)

The only copy of the original logo is a small digital image with resolution too coarse for most uses, Jackson said. So LJCPA secretary Suzanne Baracchini asked local graphic designer Peter Gotfredson to propose some updated versions.

The original logo features a belvedere (shade structure) along the coast, plus palm trees and the ocean. Two of the proposed logos feature the belvedere, the others don’t.

Baracchini is part of a group looking to stop construction of a belvedere at Windansea Beach.

Several people attending the meeting stated their preference for a logo that features the belvedere and recommended changes to improve readability.

Trustee Brian Will said “the first two options [with the belvedere] scream La Jolla. The palm tree doesn’t say La Jolla; it could be Miami.”

Trustee Barbara Dunbar said the palm trees in the renderings without a belvedere “look like fireworks.”

Rental assistance program: Amanda Berry, representing the office of San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, whose District 3 includes La Jolla, noted that the Board of Supervisors recently approved the county’s first rental assistance program for senior citizens to help them “stay in their homes and provide support before they become homeless.”

Through the program, the county will provide 220 seniors facing potential homelessness with $500 monthly rent subsidies for 18 months.

Applications will be accepted in January, with payments starting in March.

Fire station update: A groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 17, for the new Torrey Pines fire station near the north end of the UC San Diego campus. UCSD spokeswoman Anu Delouri said the university is in the process of deeding a little over an acre to the city of San Diego and has given the city almost $21 million to build the fire station.

The two-story, 12,360-square-foot station — formerly known as the UCSD fire station — will accommodate three drive-through apparatus bays and nine staff members, including a battalion chief. It is slated to open in mid-2024 near the corner of North Torrey Pines Road and Genesee Avenue.

Next meeting: The La Jolla Community Planning Association next meets at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3, online. Learn more at lajollacpa.org. ◆