If you plan to sell, remodel or develop your single-family residential property in La Jolla Shores in the next couple of years you could be in for a real surprise! If the leadership of the La Jolla Community Planning Association (LJCPA) gets their way, your property value could decline more then 30% in 2015!

Joe La Cava candidate for City Council

Bird Rock resident, Joe La Cava and Murilands resident, Phil Merten are adamant about changing the La Jolla Shores Planned District Ordinance (LJSPDO). While neither of them live nor own property in the Shores, as members of the LJCPA, they want to change the LJSPDO and impose a restrictive city wide Floor Area Ratio (FAR) on all single family residential properties in La Jolla Shores. At the January LJCPA meeting the number one item on Mr. La Cava’s infrastructure priority list was;“funding for a community process and City Staff hours to revise the LJSPDO.”[1] This list will be presented to City Council president Sherri Lightner for consideration by the full City Council.

At the recent La Jolla town Council “State of La Jolla Address” Mr. La Cava, again identified one of his goals for 2015 is to; “refine the La Jolla Shores Planned District Ordinance to make it more predictable for everyone.” While Mr. Merten’s comment in the January 8, 2015 La Jolla Light was much more to the point; ” I would like to see upper limits placed on Floor Area Ratios (FARs) for projects on properties zoned as single-family residential within the La Jolla Shores Planned District, so as not to exceed the maximum allowed FARs for single-family residential zoned properties elsewhere in La Jolla.”

Phil Merten Chair of the La Jolla Shores Permit Review Committee

With all due respect to Mr. La Cava and Mr. Merten, our current LJSPDO is very predictable. There is no FAR in the LJSPDO or the La Jolla Shores Design Manual! The LJSPDO is only unpredictable when the La Jolla Shores Permit Review Committee and the LJCPA continue to apply a non-existent “city wide FAR” while reviewing proposed single-family residential properties in La Jolla Shores. This practice has been rejected by the City of San Diego Development Service Department and the City Attorney, but not by the LJCPA leadership.

This community notice is intended to inform La Jolla Shores residents of the potential looming change to their property values. Register and vote below, let the leadership of the LJCPA know you oppose their current practice of applying a non-existent “city wide FAR” on  single-family residential homes presently under their review and you don’t support the stated goals of Mr. La Cava and Mr. Merten to change our LJSPDO in 2015!

The La Jolla Association believes the process of changing the LJSPDO and the La Jolla Shores Design Manual should begins with the residents of La Jolla Shores. The process must be open, transparent and endorsed by the majority of the residents, not a few selected individuals or committees with predetermined agendas. The process to change the LJSPDO was started several years ago, by La Jolla Shores resident and former LJCPA Trustee Tim Lucas, but the majority of community did not support his effort or the proposed changes.

[1]  January 15, 2015 La Jolla Light Page A6

Register your support and vote to Save Our LJSPDO. If you have a neighbor and what to share this link please copy and send it to them.

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