La Jolla Shores neighbors propose gating new development, worry about drainage

More than 50 La Jollans — including former U.S. Congresswoman and frequent Democrat appointee Lynn Schenk — got their first look at plans to put eight houses on the last big lot uphill from La Jolla Shores Wednesday, and they made a suggestion that surprised its developer: put a gate across the entrance.

"We hadn't thought of it," said architect Paul Benton, who led the presentation. "We can certainly look at it."

The gate will keep beachgoers from parking on the fire lane that leads into the development, Schenk said. "They don't pay attention to the no parking signs anyway," she said.

The 4.4-acre lot is now home to a single sprawling house that will be torn down to put four houses uphill on the east side and four more on the downhill west side of the fire lane that runs north-south through the middle. The road will be an extension of Calle de Cielo and will dead-end at the south in a small roundabout, Benton said.

Neighbors say that the hillside has terrible drainage problems and several downhill neighbors' homes flooded in this year's extraordinary rains — so they were intensely interested in how the plan handled drainage.

"We are installing pipe that runs to the existing piping and out at La Jolla Shores Road," the project engineer said. "It looks like it's going to be an improvement. We calculated for a 100-year storm. We are now taking water that overflowed into people's houses and capturing it."

It was a friendly group, chock-full of architects, land use experts and past members of the planning committee. Benton is a past chairman, and other past members include Phil Merten, who represented Schenk. Current chairman Tony Crisafi is also an architect.

In 2015, Merten touched off a small scandal when he explained to the city Planning Commission how manipulative and manipulated the approval process is in La Jolla.

The houses Benton proposed will be about 7,500 square feet each, two stories at the east end, and the slope is such that second floors won't block the views of the people uphill, Benton said. The drawings show each house with a pool and a three-car garage.

Although the project was presented to the La Jolla Community Permit Review Committee with houses drawn on each lot — 'similar but different' by design, it's the eight lots that are for sale, and the houses will be designed with the new owners involved — and will have to be approved by the planning committee.

Residents bemoaned the coming construction noise — and planning committee chairman Tony Crisafi chided them. "At least 50 percent of the houses in the neighborhood, the buyers come in and bulldoze and build their dream home," Crisafi said.