La Jolla Shores welcomes new batch of streetlights

by Noah Lyons

People walking around La Jolla Shores in recent weeks may have noticed new street fixtures around the neighborhood. And soon there will be light — or at least more of it.

Faulty and aging streetlights have long been an issue in The Shores. Area resident Brian Earley said in March 2017 that the wiring for the acorn-style streetlights was installed in the 1930s and might be “running thin.”

Nearly three years after the La Jolla Shores Association first approved five design elements for new streetlights in the area, a total of 37 lights — 31 acorn post-top decorative streetlights and six cobra-head streetlights, which extend from the pole — are now installed, all with new circuits.

According to San Diego city spokesman Tyler Becker, the city is preparing for a final walkthrough and expects the lights to be turned on before September ends. The exact timeline, he added, depends on San Diego Gas & Electric’s availability.

One cobra light each is located near Camino del Collado, Calle Corta, Calle del Oro and Vallecitos, while two are placed along Calle Frescota. The acorn lights primarily run through La Jolla Shores Drive and Paseo del Ocaso.

Height and aesthetics are the two key differences between acorn and cobra-head lights. Acorn lights stand 9½ feet with an acorn-shaped top, while a cobra light is roughly 27 feet tall with an arm that extends horizontally from the top of the pole.

A cobra-head light, pictured in another neighborhood, is approximately 27 feet tall. (City of San Diego)

The installation of the 37 streetlights is part of Phase 1 of the Block 1J Undergrounding Project to install underground utility lines from La Jolla Shores Drive west to the ocean and from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography south to Avenida de la Playa.

Key design details for the streetlights were sorted out in June 2023, when LJSA gave its unanimous support to a new set of options after city officials said some of the original choices didn’t conform to a 2010 city resolution that lights must be “dark-sky compliant.”

Rick Kent, a former Shores Association trustee who worked with the city to refine the design choices, said the lights have concrete poles with anti-graffiti coating, which initially makes them look darker but eventually fades in the sun, and metallic paint on the lanterns that reflects more sunlight than it absorbs.

Those features, he believes, will make them hold up very well.