Bird Rock council discusses landscaping, lighting options

The annual “report card” on the Bird Rock Maintenance Assessment District, which is responsible for upkeep of roundabout landscaping, contained mostly good marks - except for some demerits for the plants blocking views.

Bird Rock Community Council (BRCC) president Joe LaCava presented the update and said the district, formed by residents who agreed to assess themselves in 2005, could also take on new street lighting if the board agrees to suggestions made at the Feb. 3 meeting.

He said there have been some trials and tribulations involved with acquiring and maintaining landscaped median strips for the community’s five traffic circles.

“I think the design of the landscaping has been the single most disappointing thing from an aesthetic point of view and the appropriateness of that,” he said. “But that’s what we got and we’re kind of stuck with it now.”

With more community input, LaCava suggested a new consensus might be achieved on a more appropriate landscape palate for the medians.

Addressing complaints that the landscaping was overgrown and presenting a safety hazard, LaCava said it is all being trimmed uniformly now to a 26-inch height.

Bird Rock council board member George Sutton talked about the need for lighting in the community.

“It is dark out here,” he said.

Sutton passed out photos of existing 10- to 12-foot median gaslamp-like light standards in Point Loma and Ocean Beach showing the type of decorative illumination being proposed.

He said the community is proposing doing its own lighting rather than have the city do it because, “You can get on the city’s list for that and they’ll pay for it - and do it in about 10 years. That didn’t really seem what we were looking for.”

Board member Michelle Fulks added that new lighting could help “prevent a lot of the smash-and-grabs merchants are having to deal with on the boulevard.”

Should the community decide median lighting is the way to go, La Cava said money to pay for it would come from maintenance district funding and the project would be put out to competitive bid.