The La Jolla reserve has been largely closed for six years as UCSD and the Coastal Commission continue extending the deadline for a hearing. 

Once again, an application for a management access plan for UC San Diego’s Scripps Coastal Reserve has been withdrawn for resubmittal, extending an already prolonged process even further.

Scripps Coastal Reserve, at 9400 La Jolla Farms Rd and known to locals as “the knoll” or “the cliffs,” contains about 1,000 acres above Black’s Beach and is part of the University of California’s Natural Reserve System.

UCSD closed the reserve, which had been open to the public daily, in 2020 during the pandemic and only reopened it for monthly docent-led tours and weekly maintenance.

The continued closure led to a California Coastal Commission investigation, as the restriction of public access in the coastal zone needs prior commission approval. 

A 2024 UCSD application to the Coastal Commission to maintain the closure, citing safety concerns with the bordering cliffs, erosion prevention and preservation of native plants, was withdrawn before the June 2025 hearing deadline.

The resubmitted application, up against its Feb 10 deadline for hearing, was withdrawn again recently, resetting the permit process timeline.

Commission staff coordinated the withdrawal and resubmittal with UCSD, Coastal Commission enforcement counsel Andrew Willis told lajolla.ca, “to allow for comprehensive staff review and response to the application for the access program.”

The collaboration means the Coastal Commission has not commenced an enforcement action on the now six-year closure, Willis said.

Willis did not answer lajolla.ca’s question as to how many times an application can be withdrawn and resubmitted.

The item remains listed on the Coastal Commission’s “Future Agenda Items” page as an application “to obtain after-the-fact approval for a managed access plan to a loop trail on the upland ‘knoll’ portion of Scripps Coastal Reserve [and] construct a 6- to 8-foot-high steel entry gate on a 17-acre bluff top site.”

“We are working to schedule [the matter] for a public hearing as soon as possible,” Willis said.