Planners Ask Culture Zone Plan Changes for La Jolla

San Diego planning commissioners, confronting the same dilemma as La Jolla planning groups, found little agreement Thursday on a proposal to create a protective cultural zone around six venerable institutions.

At the end of a two-hour hearing, the commissioners continued the debate until Jan. 23, asking the planning staff to bring back two revised proposals.

The ordinance, designed to remove the temptation of selling off the valuable land held by the cultural organizations for the development of condominiums, was attacked by representatives of Bishop’s School, La Jolla Presbyterian Church, St. James-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church and others as unnecessary and unfair. Attorneys representing the institutions charged Thursday that the proposal would reduce the value of their property and prevent them from borrowing sufficient sums for necessary upkeep and expansion.

The area, centered on the intersection of Prospect and Silverado streets, contains the La Jolla Woman’s Club, the La Jolla Recreation Center, the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, the two churches and the private school. Much of the property was given to the institutions by the community’s most prolific donor, Ellen Browning Scripps, and residents have argued that the land should not be sold for commercial purposes.

The dispute arose early this year when the museum began looking for another site. Rumors, never confirmed by museum officials, were that the museum planned to sell its prime ocean view site for a multimillion-dollar figure to a developer interested in building million-dollar condominiums.

La Jolla resident Sue Oxley founded Rezone to coordinate efforts to rezone the 5.5-block area. Her group aims to prevent property owners from building up to 43 residential units per acre.

Oxley said Thursday that the latest version of the cultural zone ordinance proposed by the city Planning Department “is clearly opposed to what the people want.”

“The land ultimately will revert to its highest (economic) use,” Oxley said, unless the zoning is changed to prevent residential development.

City planners initially proposed abolishing residential zoning in the cultural zone, substituting various existing commercial uses. After an outcry from the institutions’ leaders, residential zoning was restored, with required public hearings before residential uses are granted.

This incensed La Jolla residents, who, like Oxley, called the restoration of residential zoning in the cultural zone a “concession to special interests.”

One resident, Rob Whittemore, demanded action: “If you want to make an omelette, you have to break some eggs. If you want to create a cultural zone, you have to prevent residential development.”

Planning Commission Chairman Ron Roberts sided with the residents, saying he had “some reservations . . . about the residential zoning remaining.” He proposed that the residential zoning be replaced with an expanded list of permitted uses, including theaters, restaurants, bookstores, senior citizen housing and shops related to the cultural institutions.

If residential development is allowed to occur, Roberts said, “it would mean a major, major change in the fabric of that community.”

But other commissioners argued that cultural groups were being singled out for special sanctions that does not cover similar organizations in other parts of the city and voiced opposition to removing the residential zoning.

The two revised ordinances will detail plans for removing residential zoning and restricting residential zoning.

Also left undecided was a proposal by several residents to expand the cultural zone to include park areas along Coast Boulevard and the former Scripps Clinic site, now a commercial building.