La Jolla Shores Association lends support to local legislation and more

The La Jolla Shores Association took action on several items ranging from sidewalk vending to celebrating the ocean during its virtual meeting Nov. 9, including giving its approval to letters supporting ordinances going before local legislative bodies.

Sidewalk vending

LJSA unanimously endorsed a letter from several coastal groups supporting local enforcement of a San Diego ordinance regulating street vending.

The ordinance was passed earlier this year and took effect in most of the city June 22, but restrictions focusing largely on where vendors can operate could not be enforced in La Jolla and other coastal communities while awaiting review by the California Coastal Commission. Other regulations for permitting and health and safety did go into effect.

But City Councilwoman Jennifer Campbell’s office said Aug. 26 that the Coastal Commission had agreed to withdraw its review and allow enforcement of the new vending regulations in the coastal zone.

The office said regulations pertaining to pushcarts would be resubmitted for commission review.

Portions of the ordinance containing language about Coastal Commission review needed to be rewritten, and it was given a first reading at the City Council’s meeting Nov. 14.

The ordinance will have a second council reading Tuesday, Dec. 6, and if approved, will be enforceable 30 days later.

La Jolla resident Catharine Douglass said a group of organizations from San Diego beach communities including La Jolla, Pacific Beach, Mission Beach and Ocean Beach that calls itself the Coastal Coalition wrote a letter urging Mayor Todd Gloria and City Council members to support enforcing the vending ordinance in the coastal zone. The letter was to be sent ahead of the council’s hearing this week.

The letter follows the coalition’s Sept. 12 letter thanking Gloria and Campbell for their efforts in getting the Coastal Commission to forgo its hearing on the ordinance.

“A stronger message is sent when four contiguous communities are on the same page,” Douglass said.

The new letter, dated Nov. 7, conveys the coalition’s belief that “the influx of sidewalk vendors who flocked to the coast to skirt the new regulations being enforced inland created elevated issues related to safety, health, trash, damage to our park lands, impacted parking availability, created overall blight and decreased access to our shoreline for everyone in San Diego,” Douglass said.

Beach fires

A proposal to explicitly ban wood bonfires on San Diego beaches unless the fires are inside designated city rings is expected to go to the City Council next month.

(Elisabeth Frausto)

LJSA unanimously authorized board member Meinrat “Andi” Andreae to draft and send a letter to the San Diego city attorney’s office to press for completion of a review of a proposal to explicitly ban wood bonfires on city beaches outside designated fire rings.

The proposal, backed by City Councilman Joe LaCava, whose District 1 includes La Jolla, is undergoing legal review with the city attorney, according to LaCava representative Vicky Joes.

The city attorney’s office has indicated the review will be completed shortly, Joes said, which would allow the City Council to docket the proposal in December.

Andreae will write and send the letter only if there is a delay. “We’ve been waiting since June,” he said.

Parking lot closures

LJSA unanimously endorsed a letter from the Coastal Coalition to the city’s Parks & Recreation Department to indicate the coalition is still interested in having beach parking lots — including the one for Kellogg Park in The Shores — locked nightly.

The letter comes after a recent inquiry to LJSA from department Director Andy Field as to whether nightly parking lot closures for several beaches from Ocean Beach north through La Jolla were still desired, LJSA President Janie Emerson said.

“We indicated to them that yes, absolutely we wanted to continue locking here,” she said.

Events in Kellogg Park

LJSA unanimously approved a letter to Parks & Recreation requesting that proposals for events in Kellogg Park go through the association first before organizers seek city permit approval.

Emerson said she would like LJSA to ensure that “the park is not overused,” resulting in grass erosion and other damage.

LJSA board member Ross Rudolph said “that sounds like a tremendous amount of obligation for this organization, to try to be the funnel through which all of these various events want to go.”

Emerson replied that the association used to have responsibility for approving events and that it would be “simply an agenda item on our normal meeting schedule.”

Celebrate Our Oceans/Walter Munk Day

One event in Kellogg Park, Celebrate Our Oceans/Walter Munk Day, got LJSA’s unanimous support as an annual event.

The 2023 iteration will be held Saturday, Oct. 14. The event was called Ocean Awareness Day this year and featured activities and speakers honoring the legacy of late La Jolla oceanographer Walter Munk.

“It was a great event; it was lots of fun,” Emerson said. ◆