La Jolla Shores residents renew parking concerns over outdoor dining promenade

La Jolla Shores’ outdoor street dining is becoming permanent, extending a pandemic-era fixture on Avenida de la Playa. But during an at-times testy La Jolla Shores Association meeting Aug. 13, some residents raised alarm over what they view as a significant parking issue.

A new right-of-way permit extending the outdoor dining was approved Aug. 6 by the San Diego Development Services Department and by the Transportation Department soon after.

The section of Avenida de la Playa between El Paseo Grande and Calle de la Plata has been off limits to vehicles during certain hours since July 2020 to allow restaurants to provide seating on the street. The program originally was intended to assist restaurants amid COVID-19-related restrictions on indoor dining, but it has remained past the end of those restrictions due to its popularity.

The previous permit, issued by the San Diego Special Events & Filming Department, required periodic renewals and was set to expire Aug. 9, according to city spokesman Richard Berg.

The new permit keeps that stretch of the street, called a promenade, closed to traffic permanently around the clock, with the condition that a 20-foot buffer be provided for emergency vehicles, according to La Jollan Phil Wise, who spearheaded The Shores outdoor dining project and has since worked to keep it alive.

The responsibility for extending the outdoor dining further into the street is up to individual restaurants, Wise added.

At the Shores Association meeting, President John Pierce read a statement from the La Jolla Shores Business Association.

The statement described the outdoor dining project as “an unqualified success” that has created a vibrant atmosphere on the block.

“I wanted them to come today, so this is the best they’ve got — the plans and the statement,” Pierce said. “It’s just something. I wanted some transparency so people could know.”

Darren Moore, co-chair of the Shores Business Association and the owner of several restaurants in La Jolla, including Shore Rider, Dough Momma Pizzeria and Cove House, told the La Jolla Light the group was unable to have a representative attend in person because of scheduling conflicts and late notice.

“It was a timing thing,” Moore said. “We’re always down to participate with the La Jolla Shores Association. They’ve been awesome and they’ve been great partnering together.”

Much of the discussion at the meeting centered on replacing parking spaces lost to the street dining. Some residents and businesses say that has worsened traffic and access problems.

In 2023, the San Diego City Council consented to new California Coastal Commission regulations that require establishments closest to the beach to replace any public parking spaces taken by dining areas they operate on the street.

Original estimates of replacement parking spaces needed in The Shores was 26. But with three spaces taken away by the new “daylighting” law that prohibits street parking within 20 feet of an intersection or a crosswalk, two spaces adjacent to storm drains and 10 spaces designated as “no parking” that were determined could become legal parking spaces, the replacement number was reduced to 11, according to Berg and Wise.

The location of those spaces is the same as in a plan to reduce the width of a sandy berm dividing the Kellogg Park parking lot on the west side of Camino del Oro that received narrow support from LJSA last year.

LJSA board member Mike McCormack called the plan “sloppy” and questioned the number of replacement spaces being reduced to 11. McCormack, a frequent advocate for coastal access, contended that a shortage of parking in The Shores is a product of the overcommercialization of the coast.

“Who is representing the person in eastern San Diego that’s got 100-degree weather with their kids out of school and they want to come to the coast and the parking is under assault?” McCormack said.

“I live here, I have access to this,” he continued. “I am so lucky. I care about the people who I want to share with.”

Tamara O’Brien, who joined the meeting via Zoom, said the board should continue talking about how to create more parking.

“I think this will be a good perspective to … seeing the big picture and trying to mitigate this issue before it becomes a disaster,” O’Brien said.

Some at the meeting floated revisiting a previous idea for 24 parking spaces at the berm, though it would exceed the city’s replacement requirement.

Whether that’s feasible is unknown, Moore told the Light.

The process to permanently establish the promenade was long and complicated, he said. Working to secure the proper permit was akin to building a plane while flying it, he added.

“The city was working really hard with a can-do attitude and they were awesome, and we just did what they instructed us to do,” Moore said. “There’s a lot of nuance in this.”

Pierce said at the meeting that LJSA could reach out to Development Services about attending a future meeting to address parking-related questions and concerns.

Other LJSA news

Budget requests: Representatives of four La Jolla planning groups got together recently to create a unified collection of project requests to submit to the city for possible funding. Now the list is going to each group for ratification.

The La Jolla Community Planning Association board gave its unanimous support Aug. 7, and LJSA did the same Aug. 13.

Once the Bird Rock Community Council and the La Jolla Parks & Beaches board approve the list, it will be submitted to the city, likely at the beginning of September.

Fire station fundraising: Local Rotarians are looking to raise $175,000 to remodel a small fire station in La Jolla’s Mount Soledad area, and their latest stop was the Shores Association meeting.

Station 16 at 2110 Via Casa Alta was built in 1982 and has had small upgrades since, but no major renovations, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

The city has approved what is considered a Phase 1 plan shepherded by the La Jolla Sunrise Rotary Club to replace walls and doors in the station’s sleeping areas, as well as other improvements.

The changes would enhance the living conditions of the firefighters by allowing for better rest and recovery and bringing the station closer to modern standards, according to Sunrise Rotarian Parker Davenport.

The San Diego Fire-Rescue Foundation can accept donations earmarked for the project. Learn more at sdfirerescue.org.

Next meeting: The La Jolla Shores Association next meets at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 17, at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Martin Johnson House, 8840 Biological Grade. For more information, visit lajollashoresassociation.org.