UCSD and Neighbors Still at Odds on Site of $6-Million Aquarium

Edith Kodmur is convinced that UC San Diego supporters of a proposed aquarium and ocean science center to be built about 300 yards from her backyard in La Jolla Highlands weren’t telling the truth in September about how it would affect her neighborhood.

After reviewing a revised version of the September, 1985, environmental impact report that was released this month, she still has doubts.

“While they’ve obviously listened to our concerns, it’s sort of mitigation by typewriter,” she said.

Meanwhile, in the basement of the 80-year-old Scripps Aquarium that the university wants to replace, chunks of concrete have been known to fall from the ceiling at random. Upstairs, directly below the Scripps Institution of Oceanography marine life exhibit, long cracks in the cement can be seen running parallel to the bottom of the tanks. Trying to find parking outside the weathered building can require large doses of patience, luck and being in the right place at the right time.

To aquarium director Donald Wilkie, this is adequate proof that a new facility is needed, and soon. “The building is becoming less and less sound,” he said.

In the nearly 200-page revised environmental impact report, prepared by UC San Diego’s Campus Planning Office, supporters of the site have presented what they claim is a thorough assessment of the effect a 5.5-acre, $6-million aquarium would have on its neighbors. The report focuses on key concerns of the La Jolla neighborhood, including natural resources, traffic and noise. The study also details how the aquarium would look and why it should be built on the proposed site.

“We really can’t do what we do here at a remote site,” said Tom Collins, assistant director of the aquarium.

A public hearing on the report is scheduled for late May, after which the University of California Board of Regents will have the final say on whether to allow construction of the new aquarium.

The aquarium, which would be in operation by 1990, will include 15,000 square feet of outdoor space for tide pool exhibits, picnic areas, whale-watching and a dozen other public activities. An additional 15,000 square feet is planned as an expansion to the main building to house a restaurant, auditorium, museum and research laboratories. The site is on the 100-acre Scripps tract 500 feet east of La Jolla Shores Drive.

The location of the new aquarium, which has been in the works for nearly 20 years, wasn’t controversial until September, when the first report was released stating exactly where the aquarium would be built. Since that time, a group of La Jolla Highlands residents have united in opposition to the proposed development site. Most of their concerns revolve around fears of how the aquarium might disrupt their way of life.

Both Collins and Wilkie said that they have done all they could to satisfy their angry neighbors, even going so far as to build it out of the residents’ sight so as not to disrupt their picturesque view. Both said their recent study shows that the new aquarium’s impact on traffic and noise was “insignificant.” Neither had an explanation for why some residents are still upset.

But Kodmur did. She claims that the revised report wasn’t properly researched and doesn’t accurately reflect the impact the aquarium would have on her neighborhood.

“My biggest concern are the numbers, the numbers are way off. . . . They have done things like say we’re (the aquarium) one-fifth the size of Monterey, therefore we’ll have one-fifth the attendance. That’s not the way it works,” she said. Monterey last year opened a large oceanfront aquarium.

As another example of incorrect figures, Kodmur pointed to the projected annual attendance of 500,000 people. She is positive the figure will be closer to 2 million.

Wilkie and Kodmur agree that a new aquarium needs to be built. They also both realize that the vacant space behind her home, now full of trees, brush and a picture-window view of the ocean, must eventually be developed into something. The 7-month-old disagreement is over what that something will be.

“They need a new aquarium, we know that. We want them to have it, just not on that site,” Kodmur said.