A project four years in the making: new monument signs for Bird Rock are in progress, but the Bird Rock Community Council wants input before taking a vote.
The options put forth to the community at the BRCC’s March 5 meeting:
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- Place one monument announcing the Bird Rock neighborhood in the La Jolla Boulevard median between the intersections of Bird Rock Avenue and Forward Street;
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- “Bookend” the Bird Rock neighborhood with monuments in the roundabouts at either end, such as at Camino de la Costa and Colima Street;
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- Opt to carry out both the above choices.
The median monument would be a “larger natural stone [with] bronze birds on top,” said architect and La Jolla resident Trace Wilson, who emphasized his plans are conceptual only and may change.
The median monument would have the words “Bird Rock” on it as well, and would measure five or six feet long and four feet tall, centered within the median.
The roundabout monuments would be larger but still along the same theme of rocks with birds, following the inspiration of “being down on the rocks with children and looking at the various ‘bird rocks’,” the local rocks atop which cormorants and pelicans sit, Wilson said.
The roundabout monuments would still be under drivers’ line of sight.
“We Bird Rockians have a certain need for creativity,” Wilson said, along with a sense of civic pride as a distinct neighborhood of La Jolla.
The monuments will help the community “herald that in an elegant way,” he said.
“I like the bookend approach; I don’t like the idea of anything in the medians,” Mary Lynn Hyde said during public comment. “I don’t think [a median monument would] be as visible and people driving by theoretically shouldn’t be paying attention to it.”
Others agreed, including BRCC board member Craig Bender, who said the Bird Rock merchants’ group viewed the same presentation and unanimously opted for the bookended monuments.
“Every merchant has for decades been wanting [signs indicating] you’re entering the Bird Rock commercial district, from the north and from the south,” Bender said.
The merchants also liked the median idea but bookends took priority, he added.
Though no specific cost estimates yet exist, funding for the monuments would come from a county grant and other monies that will be shared among several Bird Rock improvement projects.
BRCC members will receive an email with the monument placement options to weigh in; the board will take member input into account and vote at a future meeting.
“Let’s start to move this forward,” Wilson said.
