The nonprofit has launched through public-private partnership to be a community steward of much of La Jolla’s shoreline.

Shoring up La Jolla’s shoreline is often a slow process, due to city of San Diego budget and regulatory limitations. A new nonprofit aims to offer a community-driven solution to act as environmental stewards, generating funds and prioritizing improvements.

The just-launched La Jolla Coastal Conservancy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, will collect private donations and focus those funds into a number of projects to maintain and improve shoreline land from just above Coast Walk Trail southwest to just south of Whale View Point.

The La Jolla Coastal Conservancy is intended as a public-private partnership, a long-term agreement between a public agency (the city) and a private entity to deliver services, leveraging city employee knowledge and infrastructure with citizen effort and funding.

The conservancy is different from other La Jolla groups in that it has obtained a special use permit, similar to those given to Forever Balboa Park, the San Diego Parks Foundation and other organizations established to enhance and support city services.

In fact, the La Jolla Coastal Conservancy is the “same model” as Friends of Coast Walk Trail, another La Jolla organization aimed at improving public land, said Brenda Fake, who chairs both groups.

Fake founded FOCWT 15 years ago to preserve and enhance the historic trail, with a special use permit from the city to undertake privately-funded projects like weed pulling, bridge repair and more.

The La Jolla Coastal Conservancy

Led by Fake and new Executive Director Bob Evans, the La Jolla Coastal Conservancy will use its city permit to execute maintenance and repair projects and enhance general services, aided by city employees like deputy director of shoreline parks Patrick Hadley and senior planner Mayra Medel, Fake said.

The conservancy will clean restrooms, paint belvederes or cut the grass in Scripps Park if those are needed more often, Fake said.

The conservancy can also take on small repairs not requiring engineering, she said. “We can repair benches, we can fix fences, we can paint fences [and] trim trees” and other actions intended to keep the environmentally sensitive shoreline preserved and tended to.

The special use permit means each project doesn’t need city permission, though the conservancy’s activities will undergo review with a city manager, Fake said.

The precedent 

The conservancy’s permit approval is facilitated by the track record of FOCWT, which “has set this up and adheres to it,” Fake said.

“We don’t bend the rules on the permits.”

Fake takes issue with those who say “‘the city doesn’t do’” these things,  she said, “because the city is us. The city is the citizens.”

Facing serious infrastructure and maintenance challenges, Fake said, city budgets can’t keep pace with repair and upkeep needs as tourism and use of public land grows.

The city employees “are solid people that really want the best for the community,” she said. “They want … to deliver services” but are often constrained.

“They’re trying to do the best they can.”

In its infancy, the La Jolla Coastal Conservancy will “prove our mettle,” Fake said, hoping the outcome will serve as a model for other communities.

Moving stewardship forward

Fake will be documenting best practices for a public-private partnership, she said, so other organizations can follow to improve their regional spaces. 

FOCWT will still operate separately, though some work will overlap with the work of the La Jolla Coastal Conservancy. 

Groups like La Jolla Parks & Beaches, formed years ago to advise the city on shoreline management, will continue to function, Fake said, offering ideas and a community outreach forum that Fake hopes will help the Coastal Conservancy raise funds.

The La Jolla Coastal Conservancy will be formally unveiled to the public at “Cocktails Off Coast Walk,” the annual FOCWT fundraiser taking place at 6 pm Thursday, Sept 25, in the garden at the La Jolla Historical Society. The event will include a concert by the Alison Brown Quintet, dinner and cocktail and silent auction.

For more information, email lajollacoastalconservancy@gmail.com.