Construction for a second Orli hotel would add a bulb-out on Cuvier Street and three valet parking, with limited work on the building exterior.
Two more La Jolla planning committees approved a proposal to convert a large, single-family home on Prospect and Cuvier streets in La Jolla into the second Orli La Jolla hotel.
The plans, filed by Marengo Morton Architects on behalf the first Orli La Jolla hotel nearby on Draper Avenue, seek a special use permit for the reuse of a heritage structure to transform the existing 16,683 square-foot residential unit to a commercial, 20-room hotel with interior remodel at 484 Prospect St.
The 0.28-acre site’s building was constructed in 1925 as nurses’ housing for the original location of Scripps Memorial Hospital (opened at 464 Prospect St in 1924 and moved to Genesee Avenue in 1964) and was designed by Louis Gill, nephew of Irving J Gill.
The building’s exterior will receive new paint colors to match the first Orli but no other improvements, project application Claude Anthony Marengo told the La Jolla Development Permit Review committee at its June 17 meeting, where the project was reviewed for the second time.
At DPR’s first review June 10, trustees praised the project but chose not to vote until Marengo resolved his dispute with the city of San Diego over whether a coastal development permit is also needed.
The city has since determined a CDP is not needed because the project does not expand the footprint of the building’s exterior, Marengo said June 17.
There is also no removal of parking from the 20 spaces deeded to the property, nor an intensification of use, he added.
“I don’t have a problem” with the plans, trustee Angeles Leira said.
The DPR motion to approve the project passed with no opposition and will be forwarded to the La Jolla Community Planning Association for consideration.
At the La Jolla Traffic & Transportation Board’s meeting, also June 17, discussion focused on the conversion of three two-hour parking spots on Prospect Street to valet parking and the construction of a bulb-out at the property’s corner of Cuvier and Prospect.
Cuvier is “very wide” at that block, Marengo said.
A bulb-out will create a valet zone; shorten the Cuvier pedestrian crossing, making it safer; and serve as a public improvement with decorative rebar trees in a plaza setting, he said.
“I really like the idea of this bulb-out,” T&T Chair Eric Gantzel said. “It makes it so much better for pedestrians.”
“The bulb out is really valuable,” La Jolla resident Kathleen Neil said.
The T&T motion to approve the valet zone and bulb-out passed with one opposed (board member Ross Rudolph, who opposed without comment).
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