La Jolla Light
Enlightening La Jolla Since 1913
Vol. 100, Issue 36 • September 6, 2012
Residential Customer La Jolla, CA 92037 ECRWSS
Online Daily at www.lajollalight.com
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Former Jack’s, Shepherd Trust buildings for sale What would you ask Sherri Lightner and Ray Ellis? n La Jolla Light will present a free, public debate between the two candidates running for the San Diego City Council seat in District 1 (La Jolla and environs) from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 19 in the Sherwood Auditorium at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 700 Prospect St. n See how you can participate on A18
By Pat Sherman After sitting vacant for the past few years, the spacious, three-story Wall Street Plaza, at the corner of Wall Street and Girard Avenue, is on the market. The former site of Jack’s La Jolla restaurant, which closed in 2009 due to nonpayment of taxes, is being offered for purchase through auction.com. The building is owned by an investment group, and sits upon land owned by the Meanley family of Meanley Ace Hardware (established in 1948 by Ellen Browning Scripps’ niece Nackey Scripps Meanley, her husband, Tom, and son, William). Though the starting bid is $1.2 million, Phil Wise, a senior vicepresident with Colliers International real estate agency, said he feels its investor-owners are seeking upward of $4 million for the property.
INSIDE
The Red Roost and Red Rest (Neptune) cottages, built in 1894, have been decaying eyesores on Coast Boulevard for more than three decades. Historic designations prevent the owner from demolishing the structures and developing the property, leading to what some say has been willful negligence in upkeep.
Crumbling historic cottages ‘roost’ in perpetual limbo n La Jolla Light’s two-part series on The Village’s historic beach cottages (Part 1 was published in the Aug. 30 issue) continues this week with an update on the ongoing saga of the Red Rest and Red Roost cottages on Coast Boulevard.
SEE BUILDINGS, A10
Two Shores homes to be demolished for new builds Cross-country bike treks keep brothers on the same path, A20
Businesswoman brews popular tea tonic in Bird Rock, B1
BY SHELLI DEROBERTIS The La Jolla Shores Permit Review Committee (PRC) studied plans for two custom homes during its Aug. 28 meeting, before moving each matter to its Sept. 25 meeting for further review. Both homes will be developed as single-family residences on neighborhood plots in The Shores that have existing houses set for demolition. A nearly 8,000-square-foot house will replace a 2,484- square-foot house, garage and pool at 8415 Avenida De Las Ondas with a new two-story development, having a wine cellar, exercise pavilion and new retaining walls. However, the property is in a SEE HOMES, A3
Bill Gaylord
Sam Hansen
Branch Manager NMLS #680603
Branch Manager NMLS #632837
858-776-6830
858-442-1232
bgaylord@gatewayfunding.com
shansen@gatewayfunding.com
By Pat Sherman or decades, tourists and locals have wondered how an unsightly anomaly has been allowed to fester across from the world-famous La Jolla Cove, pairing nature at its best and neglect at its seeming worst. Since the late 1970s, two examples of La Jolla’s historic beach bungalow architecture have largely been left to the elements, permitted to crumble as trees and weedy vegetation suffocated them. Through the years, the Red Rest and Red Roost cottages have remained a top priority for the nonprofit Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO), which once sued the city over them, claiming officials failed to enforce ordinances regarding the upkeep of historic structures, and the general abandonment and willful neglect of properties. “It’s our biggest, longest-running frustration,” SOHO’s executive director, Bruce Coons, said. “The city has the power to fine them, confiscate the property and sell it to somebody else to make something happen, but they haven’t been willing to do any of that.” In October of 2008, the city filed suit against the owner of the cottages, Cove Properties, Inc.,
F The opulent and the obstinate stand side-by-side on Coast Boulevard, where these ramshackle residences are the region’s oldest surviving examples of late-Victorian beach cottage architecture.
Krista Baroudi of the adjacent La Jolla Cove Suites, whose family owns the cottages, says she delayed replacing the tattered tarps because removing them could damage the fragile structures. Photos by Pat Sherman
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SEE COTTAGES, A6
3160 Camino Del Rio South, Suite #217 • San Diego CA 92108
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