The La Jolla Shores Permit Review Committee returned to meeting online this week, and though its first meeting back on Zoom since the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t go as smoothly as hoped, the board is intent on sticking to the virtual format.
When the La Jolla Community Planning Association changed its bylaws in March to allow LJA and its subcommittees to hold meetings online or in a hybrid format if deemed necessary, two of the subcommittees — Shores PRC and the La Jolla Development Permit Review Committee — jumped at the chance to conduct their meetings via Zoom. Others, such as the Traffic & Transportation Board, are still scheduling in-person meetings, as is LJA.
For its first virtual meeting since the change, the PRC had just one presentation on the agenda May 15 — a proposal to demolish a 3,300-square-foot home with a 300-square-foot detached garage and replace it with a new 6,251-square-foot home at 8383 La Jolla Scenic Drive North. Other details of the project include a new 505-square-foot attached garage and an 843-square-foot detached accessory dwelling unit.
But the committee didn’t get to hear and see the majority of the presentation because of technical difficulties. Applicant representatives Colin Hernstad and Ryan Honnet tried to discuss the project but had trouble navigating Zoom.
As they attempted to reformat their screen and zoom into certain details of the plan, PRC Vice Chairwoman Janie Emerson said the presentation should have been made to the committee sooner and that the group could not make a judgment on it in its current state.
“This is a mess,” Emerson said. “I don’t see how anybody could make a good decision on this today. So my advice would be to clean up your presentation and come back in June. Otherwise, I would propose that we vote the project down today, if you need a vote today.”
Hernstad said the project had been presented to the La Jolla Shores Planned District Advisory Board twice and been given “minor adjustments.”
“You gave a good presentation to the Planned District Advisory Board where people could understand what was going on with the project,” said Emerson, who was on the board when the presentation was made in October. “So I know you can do that. It’s just not happening today.”
Hernstad said he was supposed to present the project to the PRC in person last month but the meeting was canceled. He also said he had been told the project had to be considered by PDAB before it went to the Permit Review Committee. Emerson characterized that as “bad information.”
“We are losing so much time on this project,” Hernstad said. “We’re so far behind on getting things resolved. … The clients are getting really desperate, to be honest.”
PRC member John Pierce also called the presentation “tough to follow,” and member John Shannon added that it’s hard to make a decision if the information is not laid out clearly.
Hernstad offered to print a comprehensive hard-copy description of the project for the board to review. PRC Chairman Andy Fotsch offered to distribute the materials to the board via email.
Board member Dan Courtney said he thought the presentation would have been fine in person and raised the idea of alternating meeting formats for “situations like this” — with one month online and the next month in person.
However, Courtney’s idea was denied on a 5-1 vote.
Fotsch said he is “strongly against” the idea and emphasized the adaptability of online formats. He expressed hope to standardize LJA subcommittee meetings.
“There was a lot of energy put into making these committees go back to virtual because of the flexibility that it allows for everyone who’s sitting on this call that is a volunteer,” Fotsch said. “It allows flexibility for people to be able to take calls from wherever they are in the world or what’s working in their life.”
Meeting virtually, he added, is “standard” practice five years after the format exploded in popularity due to the pandemic.
Emerson said she would not participate in in-person meetings.
“We did this for almost two years over COVID and we never had this issue,” Fotsch said. “They [the presenters] just … didn’t know what they were doing.”
“In my opinion, all of you are able to see the drawings better and we had a much more interactive discussion over Zoom, based on the annotation abilities and the Zoom abilities,” he said.
Next meeting: The La Jolla Shores Permit Review Committee next meets at 4 p.m. Thursday, June 19, online. The agenda and Zoom link will be posted 72 hours in advance at lajollaa.org. ♦
