La Jolla Coastal Conservancy completes two local maintenance projects

The La Jolla Coastal Conservancy is wasting no time in getting maintenance and repair projects off the ground. 

Within 100 days of getting its special-use right-of-entry permit from the city of San Diego, the Conservancy funded and carried out two local projects that were completed the first week of December. 

The first project was to remove a dead Canary Island date palm tree at Goldfish Point next to the Cave Store parking area. Work took one day, starting and ending on Dec. 3. 

A slightly larger project called to re-stain the exterior and repaint the trim of the La Jolla Cove lifeguard tower, and was carried out by local painting contractor PaintGreen from Dec. 3-4.

“The (La Jolla) Coastal Conservancy is an amazing group … and it’s extremely humbling that they selected us for a project,” Lifeguard Chief James Gartland said of the latter project. “We are civil servants, and we’re here to help the public. So it’s always humbling when a group gets together and decides to help us.”

He added that the need for some exterior work on the lifeguard tower is the result of deferred maintenance by the city, and after 10 years of the lifeguard tower withstanding the coastal elements. 

“This is really hardy, good wood … but sometimes there’s just so much to do in a city of this size,” he said. “And when these groups come out and take care of this maintenance for us, it’s incredible. It turned out beautiful, and we can come to work and be proud of our workplace and our facility. That helps (boost) morale, and that helps people do even a better job and provide better service for this city.” 

Should funding allow, the plan is for the La Jolla Coastal Conservancy to add new exterior shutters to the lifeguard tower down the line. 

These projects are considered first steps for the conservancy, which formed earlier this year, inspired by the public/private collaboration between the city of San Diego and La Jolla’s Friends of Coast Walk Trail, of which Coastal Conservancy member Brenda Fake is president. It aims to provide a mechanism for private entities to conduct repairs on city land by using a right-of-entry permit and relationships with the city rather than starting from scratch for each project.

The conservancy has a three-year right-of-entry permit with an option for a two-year renewal. The group already has drafted a short list of projects it says could be done immediately under the permit, including repairs to belvederes, or gazebos, in La Jolla parks and fixing various beach access stairs that have been closed because of safety concerns.

The areas to be covered include Coast Walk Trail, Scripps Park, South Casa Beach, Wipeout Beach, Cuvier Park and Whale View Point.

“La Jolla Coastal Conservancy is beyond thrilled to be up and running to address the many needs of La Jolla shoreline from Coast Walk Trail to Whale View Point,” Fake said. “We are humbled by the outpouring of support to continue this work that started on Coast Walk Trail and will now extend further along our coastline. None of this gets done without the teams of volunteers and donors from our community.”  

The next project in line for the Coastal Conservancy aims to make improvements to public facilities at Whale View Point. More specifically, it would repair a set of beach access stairs there and add a post-and-chain barrier where there is currently a rope barrier.