The La Jolla Development Permit Review Committee gave its approval to a proposal for an accessory dwelling unit that would add 1,200 square feet to the upper level above the garage of a property in the Lower Hermosa neighborhood.
The proposal is tacked onto an existing project to remodel the 6,807-square-foot, two-story single-family house at 5960 Camino de la Costa, which the DPR approved last year.
Applicant representative Mark House, principal architect with House Design Architects, presented plans for the ADU at the committee’s meeting April 9.
He said the addition would not exceed the property’s height limit. “Our height limitations are really tight, so we’re trying to do some flat steel beams going across the structure that are not as high,” House said.
House said the property owner has elderly parents and a son with a disability and that the space would be made available for them to live in.
Most questions from committee concerned whether views to the ocean from behind the property would be blocked by the addition of the ADU. House contended the view line is already obstructed by trees.
“Probably directly across the street will be mostly affected,” House said. “It actually screens 5950 [Camino de la Costa], but it doesn’t impact his view.”
Neighbor Trace Wilson, who also is an architect, said later in the meeting that “what impacts us most across the street are trees. A 60-foot tree which is being placed in the courtyard, it appears, is more impactful than the 1,200-square-foot ADU. … However, Mark and I are amicable, we’re friends.”
Though it was the first time the committee had heard the change to the existing plans, a motion to it ed, with DPR Chairman Brian Will customarily abstaining.
Other DPR news
Another Camino de la Costa project: House also presented plans for the next-door property at 5970 Camino de la Costa that would connect it to an adjacent lot at 5990. The project was on the agenda as a preliminary review.
A building on the lot at 5990 has been demolished, and the proposal calls for coastal development and site development permits to construct a 2,046-square-foot guesthouse and a more than 4,000-square-foot subterranean garage and remodel the existing home at 5970.
“There is no official merger,” House said. “You own two lots and just build across. … The existing house builds across the two properties. It’s like separate parcels that you’re combining together. There used to be an invisible property line right here, and that’s gone now.”
The guesthouse would be single-story, and the subterranean garage would go as deep as 11 feet. House said the project is 13 percent below the allowable floor area ratio, or the size of a structure in relation to its lot.
Given that the site is on a bluff, DPR questioned whether the project could cause geological destabilization.
“We know that the bluff face and most of that topology has lateral movement of water,” member John Shannon said. “It’s one of those things where we’ve seen the properties harmed and displaced by the water. It could do things that are not intended.”
House replied that “geologically, this area of the bluff is very good … it’s very stable. We’ve done an analysis twice on [nearby properties]. What’s unique about this property is that it’s facing south, so you’re not facing to the western side and you’re not getting the waves coming straight into you. Other properties that face to the west end up with softer formations. We’ve investigated a stability analysis and we’ll definitely have a drainage system.”
Questions also arose about the project’s impact on the view corridor. House said the plans include setting the new building back from the property line, which would open up the view.
Next meeting: The La Jolla Development Permit Review Committee next meets at 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 14, at The Bishop’s School, 7607 La Jolla Blvd. Learn more at lajollaa.org. ◆
