Stop The Windansea Gazebo Construction
Thank you for your continued support! If you haven't signed the Petition please do it NOW!
CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION
Your petition signatures, letters and volunteer hours have sustained our efforts to stop local groups, La Jolla Parks and Beaches and Friends of Windansea, building an unnecessary Gazebo (aka Belvedere) on the sensitive Windansea Bluff which already has 3 points of public access in that location (a stairway and two benches). This would be an additional attraction to a very congested and neglected beach that already has many public access structures (stairways and benches) that is supported by one sole non-ADA porta potty.
In 2021, La Jolla Parks and Beaches paid the City of San Diego and consultants approximately $75,000 in permit application fees to secure a Coastal Development Permit to build a Gazebo at Windansea. The permit was approved by the City of San Diego and Preserve Windansea appealed their decision to the California Coastal Commission.
The appeal is centered on three (3) inconsistencies with the City’s Local Coastal Program and the California Coastal Act:
1: Incomplete Geotechnical Analysis: Sea Level Rise/Managed Retreat
2: California Coastal Public Trail View Impacts
3: Lack of Adequate Parking for Public Access
Congestion along Neptune Place
The proposed construction will adversely affect the integrity of the bluff and the uninterrupted public panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean. Neptune Place is a narrow, beach front road heavily congested with cars, bikes, scooters and pedestrians. A Gazebo will become an attractive nuisance adding to this congestion. To pass each other pedestrians and runners are forced to step off narrow and uneven sidewalk onto the eroding bluff or into oncoming traffic. The construction of a gazebo will only exacerbate the major public safety hazards that already exist at Windansea Beach.
Pedestrians forced to walk in roadway
Pedestrians forced to walk on sensitive bluff
Runners forced off sidewalk into oncoming traffic
The City's approval of this permit not only conflicts with the policies of the Local Coastal Program and the California Coastal Act but is a reckless use of private donations and taxpayers money to build, maintain and sanitize the Gazebo in perpetuity. This money could go a long way to fixing the existing dilapidated infrastructure of Windansea Beach such as storm drains, pump house, benches, white fencing, stairways, sidewalks etc.
Gazebos belong at the commercialized Scripps Park and Coast Blvd where there are full ADA amenities , not at the small residential Windansea Beach with one non-ADA port potty. The existing Gazeboes at Scripps Park and Coast Blvd. have suffered years of neglect, the City does not repair, restore or maintain these Gazeboes (see images below).
Inadequate Amenities to support Windansea Visitors
One Non-ADA Porta Potty is sole amenity at Windasnea Beach
Windansea Porta Potty sits at the bottom of steep stairs adjacent to the often malfunctioning Pump House.
The Neglected Belvederes of La Jolla
A Public Health Risk
Illegal Use of Belvederes at Scripps Park, La Jolla, CA
The La Jolla Belvederes/Gazebos belong at the commercialized Scripps Park and Coast Blvd. where they currently stand rotten and tittering on the eroded bluffs. Sea level rise is real and it's only a matter of time before these structures fall off the bluff into the ocean. The City of San Diego is responsible for maintaining and policing the existing Belvederes at Scripps Park along Coast Blvd. Used by street vendors and where people experiencing homelessness sleep and defecate these Belvederes have become a Public Safety and Health Hazards. Homelessness and Hepatitis A-San Diego County, 2016-2018.