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FRIDAY · JUNE 21, 2013 LA JOLLA TODAY
LJTC >> CONT. FROM PG. 5
natives — car and vanpools, flex times, etc.” Kosup said standards are being set high for the Mid-Coast project. “The bar for us is to demonstrate a net benefit to the coastal resource,” he said. Coastal rail improvements costing about $6.5 billion will be done in segments over the next 40 years along the 26-mile I-5 corridor from downtown San Diego north. Kosup said the project segment in La Jolla’s Golden Triangle will upgrade I-5 interchanges in the area making them “more aesthetically sensitive.” A case in point is the I-5 Genesee Interchange Project, which will remove and replace the Genesee overcrossing. “There will be about two years of construction on that,” Kosup said. The I-5/Genesee Avenue Interchange Project will expand, from five to 10, the number of Genesee Avenue overpass lanes to accommodate greater future traffic demand. The project will improve traffic flow and reduce congestion on Genesee Avenue, including widening freeway
LJSA
>> CONT. FROM PG. 5
unregulated commercial activity. “Lifeguards have made it clear they will not do anything (enforcement) on the east side of the boardwalk.” “It would be nice to have someone down at the park on a regular basis to keep an eye out,” agreed LJSA chair Tim Lucas. “With all the fees paid by outfitters and vendors going for permitting to the (city’s) general fund, we ought to be able to fund a ranger,” said newly appointed LJSA board member Sharon Luscomb, owner of La Jolla Kayak. LJSA board member Izzy Tihanyi concurred. “We want the money to stay at the beach,” she said. “The way it’s been going, it’s a mystery where it (permitting fees) goes.” Coakley Munk suggested a new avenue LJSA might try would be to get a group together to approach Mayor Bob Filner about supporting funding for a Kellogg Park ranger during the office hours he hosts the first Saturday of the month. In other matters, San Diego Police Department officer Cindy Meyer of Northern Division gave a presentation to community planners on
access ramps and adding auxiliary lanes, as well as adding a bicycle and pedestrian facility linking to transportation, employment centers hospitals and UCSD. For more information, visit www.keepsandiegomoving.com/ncc. Fred Sweet, producer of the La Jolla Fashion Film Festival (LJFFF), visited the Town Council to discuss the upcoming two-day festival at the Museum of Contemporary Art. “It is a true international festival,” Sweet said, adding the festival will likely sell out again this year. The LJFFF is the world’s largest gathering of fashion film professionals with hundreds of attendees screening the top 1 percent of fashion films worldwide, as well as networking and attending seminars, panels and press receptions. Town Council trustee Mary Soriano said she’s attended the fashion festival and she praised the work of filmmakers involved as being “subtle and passionate.” Town Council trustee Egon Kafka agreed. “These films are the most creative stuff out there,” Kafka said. “It’s unbelievable how Fred (Sweet) makes this happen year after year. It’s amazing.”
what can be done to curb solicitors and ice cream vendors in the Shores. “Vendors can’t be parked illegally, they have to be moving through neighborhoods, have to be licensed with permitting showing and can’t go within 500 feet of schools,” Meyer said, adding the police want to work the community to be proactive about enforcing regulations, particularly governing ice cream vendors whom some Shores’ residents feel have become a nuisance. Meyers urged residents who see illegal vending activity to contact her at cmeyer@pd.sandiego.gov. She said providing documentation, photographs, license plate numbers, etc. are helpful. Chairman Tim Lucas reported that, due to IRS rule changes, LJSA, at least temporarily, has lost its nonprofit status. “It will cost us a $400 application fee for reinstatement,” Lucas said, noting the group’s indemnity insurance is also coming due, which will cost another several hundred dollars. “My hope is that we can get board membership back up to 16 members so that we can spread the cost of indemnity insurance out more,” Lucas said.
News MARIJUANA >> CONT. FROM PG. 1
to open up a [dispensary] business.” Franco thinks if done right, the return of dispensaries could be positive. “If we legitimize these businesses and do proper permitting with construction upgrades, they could be profitable businesses, employ people and be good for the economy,” he said. Beachfront planning groups, like those in Pacific Beach and Bird Rock, which have had medical marijuana dispensaries before, have mixed feelings about their return. “The position of the Bird Rock Community Council has not changed, we are against the location of marijuana dispensaries in our neighborhood,” said advisory group chair Jacqueline Bell. Bell said District 1 City Councilwoman Sherri Lightner’s office told her that “under the mayor’s proposed regulations for marijuana dispensaries, none would be allowed in Bird Rock or elsewhere in La Jolla.” Public opinion over the dispensary issue is not nearly as clear in Pacific Beach. Brian Curry, chair of Pacific Beach Planning Group, said the community remains divided over the issue. “I’ve entertained many inquiries from PB residents who are very concerned about the proliferation of dispensaries, who felt that they were not necessarily for sick people that need marijuana to treat their illnesses but for recreational use, which is a problem and an issue,” Curry said. “But there are also some in Pacific Beach who were supportive of them before, think they’re great and are amicable about the possibility of them returning.” Curry said Pacific Beach planners have not taken a position for or against dispensaries, adding group members have mixed feelings on the issue. Curry said the planning group has adopted a wait-and-see attitude toward dis-
If we legitimize these businesses and do proper permitting with construction upgrades, they could be profitable businesses, employ people and be good for the economy. TONY FRANCO COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE BROKER
pensaries. “There’s probably a reasonable — and rational — way to handle this,” he said. “Hopefully, the mayor and the City Council will figure it out.” Filner, a medical marijuana proponent, has nonetheless stated recently that dispensaries, at present, are not legally permissible in any land-use zones anywhere in the city, and that any that have opened have done so illegally. “In January, the mayor committed to preserving the status quo regarding it being illegal to site medical marijuana dispensaries in the city of San Diego until the time the City Council adopts a new ordinance,” said Lee Burdick, director of special projects and legal affairs in Filner’s office. “At the same time, [the City Council] asked the mayor to provide them with information, including mapping where medical marijuana dispensaries might be located. They asked for additional cost data regarding licensing, permitting and law enforcement. We are in the process of developing that information, and we hope to return back to the council with that information in the next weeks, at which point the council will decide how to follow up with the community planning groups.” The questionable legality of dispensaries could be cleared up with a new draft land-use Medical Marijuana Consumer Cooperative
Ordinance released recently by the city for public review. In October 2009, the City Council voted to establish a Medical Marijuana Task Force. On March 28, 2011 the council voted 5-1 to approve an ordinance allowing medical marijuana dispensaries in designated zones. However, on Sept. 27, 2011 the council voted 7-1 to rescind that ordinance. But the city is back for a second bite out of the apple. The council on April 22 directed the city attorney to draft a new medical marijuana ordinance using the previously adopted 2011 ordinance as a template. Medical marijuana dispensaries would not be allowed within 1,000 feet of public parks, churches, schools, child care centers, playgrounds, city libraries, minor-oriented facilities or other dispensaries. The newly revised ordinance would add a 100-foot buffer between dispensaries and residential zones, and also prohibit them within 1,000 feet of sensitive “uses” like drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers. Under the new ordinance, Filner would identify those city departments responsible for issuing permits and developing fee structures for dispensaries. He would also be required to provide a list of community planning groups to be contacted for input on the new land-use dispensary ordinance, as well as providing an analysis of potential zoning impacts, including square footage of use allowed, within each council district. Jonathan Heller, spokesman for City Attorney Jan Goldsmith, said the new revised land-use ordinance is out for public review and will likely not return to the City Council for further action for several months. Several medical marijuana dispensaries and landlords leasing to them did not reply to repeated attempts to contact them for this article.
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