The yearslong process has created community tension while the California Coastal Commission works with the university on a managed access plan.
A years-long closure of the Scripps Coastal Reserve – and the process to have the closure approved by the California Coastal Commission – will continue for the foreseeable future, as UC San Diego’s application for the closure was withdrawn and resubmitted, restarting the approval timeline.
Scripps Coastal Reserve, at 9400 La Jolla Farms Road 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.
The Coastal Commission had been investigating the reserve’s ongoing closure for months beginning in 2023, as the restriction of public access in the coastal zone needs prior commission approval.
Before the closure, the reserve was open to the public from 8 am. to sunset daily; UCSD closed the reserve in 2020 during the pandemic and only reopened it for monthly docent-led tours and weekly maintenance.
“Reopening the preserve for public access is certainly something that the commission wants to accomplish,” Coastal Commission enforcement counsel Andrew Willis told lajolla.ca in September 2023.
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 up against a June 2025 deadline for hearing but the university withdrew the item April 17 from the commission’s May agenda.
“In order to allow all parties time to continue to work through issues related to UCSD’s proposal,” Willis said April 23, “commission staff asked UCSD to withdraw and resubmit an application for an access plan.
The application was resubmitted immediately upon withdrawal, Willis said.
The withdrawal and resubmittal was intended to reset the permit process timeline, he added. A future hearing has not yet been scheduled; Willis did not immediately answer an inquiry about a new deadline.
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