More than a dozen La Jolla projects recently were submitted to the city of San Diego for consideration for funding, part of an annual tradition of local planning groups producing a list of capital improvement projects they would like the city to implement.
The top five submitted for the 2025-26 fiscal year are based on funding availability: two in Bird Rock, one in The Village, one in The Shores and one on the La Jolla Bike Path.
In the past, La Jolla’s community groups would submit separate lists and the city would pick one or two projects based on priorities and funding availability.
But looking to present a united front, representatives of the La Jolla Community Planning Association, La Jolla Shores Association, Bird Rock Community Council and La Jolla Parks & Beaches group got together the past two years to produce one list of projects for the city.
No. 1 on last year’s list, as it was the year before, was widening and rebuilding the Scripps Park sidewalk along Coast Boulevard. Resurfacing the La Jolla Shores boardwalk was No. 2 both years.
On March 11 this year, the city allocated $750,000 to draft a plan to widen the sidewalk as one of 19 park projects citywide that will receive a total of $15.9 million in capital improvement funding as part of Mayor Todd Gloria’s “Parks for All of Us” initiative.
Now the groups have come together to produce a new wish list of projects. The top five are:
- Repair and restore La Jolla Hermosa Park in Bird Rock
- Repair and replace crosswalks on La Jolla Shores Drive in The Shores
- Add and upgrade pedestrian-activated signals on La Jolla Boulevard between Palomar and Colima streets in Bird Rock
- Install a roundabout on Prospect Street in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
- Resurface the La Jolla Bike Path
Outside of the top five, nine projects were listed in order of priority, many of them from previous lists:
- Resurface the pathway and rebuild the crumbing walls on the La Jolla Shores boardwalk
- Repave Neptune Place with concrete and install flood control infrastructure, widen the sidewalk and add a bike lane there
- Add steps to the bottom of the staircase at La Jolla Cove
- Weed abatement on all La Jolla streets, medians and rights of way
- Repair deteriorating sidewalks
- Develop and implement a Scripps Park Resource Land Management Plan
- Conduct a comprehensive traffic study at the intersection of La Jolla Parkway, Torrey Pines Road and Hidden Valley Road, known as “The Throat”
- Create a comprehensive transportation safety plan and traffic-calming measures throughout La Jolla
- Install a roundabout on La Jolla Shores Drive
La Jolla Parks & Beaches President Bob Evans said at the group’s May 20 meeting that “our focus was to select projects that have been on the list for a long time … that are the most selectable and easiest to pick, that would be low-budget.”
Not everyone is pleased with the projects submitted.
La Jolla Shores Association board member Andrew Perry expressed frustration earlier this month at the number of projects outside The Shores.
“Why aren’t we just talking about things that happen in The Shores?” he said. “Why are we talking about things in The Village? Can we move our priorities up to the top? The Village just got all the money spent in [Scripps] Park. … What projects have we actually had funded in The Shores?”
Projects can be funded in multiple ways. One is to be included in the city budget. But they also might be funded through Community Projects, Programs and Services grants that are given in various amounts every year for projects in each of San Diego’s nine City Council districts. ◆
