Independent La Jolla moving forward on city boundaries
By Stefan R. Garcia-Valentin
Contributor
As a small group of La Jollans continue their efforts to figure out if their idea of creating a city of La Jolla is feasible, the man who drew the boundaries for the proposed entity several years ago is updating his maps.
Eugene Cook, the engineer who drew the “City of La Jolla” boundaries in 2006 based on the 92037 ZIP code, told the group at its meeting on June 16 that additional work needs to be done “to recompile those maps (of city, county and Caltrans) into a form that is required by the Franchise Tax Board” to approve the boundaries and move forward. The volunteer group also needs someone to work on the legal description of these proposed boundaries.
The group’s members say part of their motivation is that they feel that La Jolla often gets overlooked in the existing structure. Its president Cindy Greatrex pointed to the $11 million cost to rebuild the community’s two lifeguard towers.
“There are some things that are affecting us that are being decided at city hall,” Greatrex said. “Like there seems to be no cost controls or time controls. Why is it so costly and why is it going to take two years to do?”
The process of separating from the city of San Diego is a daunting one, they have said, that will involve updating the feasibility studies from 2005 as well as finding money to pay for seeking approval from LAFCO (Local Agency Formation Commission). It also involves a state law that currently requires approval from voters in all of San Diego County as well as the La Jolla community, that Independent La Jolla members say may be insurmountable.
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Stefan R. Garcia-Valentin is a freelance writer from La Jolla.