The homes will range from 8,493 to 13,544 square feet in size.
Much of the Foxhill Estate, once the largest contiguous property in La Jolla at 30 acres, will be subdivided into eight lots including five houses after the San Diego Planning Commission approved the proposal Sept. 19.
Foxhill was built in the late 1950s by late journalist and publishing magnate James Copley, a former publisher of the San Diego Union-Tribune, and served as the Copley family home and one of his offices.
Doug Manchester bought the entire estate 6850 Country Club Drive in 2015; it sold earlier this year for a record-breaking $35 million.
The new owners are seeking to subdivide a 22.2-acre parcel of the estate, excluding the mansion but including the golf course, into eight new lots, Robin MacCartee of the city of San Diego’s Development Services Department told the Planning Commission.
Five of the new lots would each contain a single dwelling unit with two floors above grade and one subterranean level.
The homes, each of varying designs and each with a pool, will range from 8,493 to 13,544 square feet, MacCartee said.
The proposed houses all meet Municipal Code regulations for height, setbacks and floor-to-area ratio, he said.
The sixth lot will serve as a private road with access and frontage to all five of the residential lots; those six lots total 3.35 acres.
The seventh and eighth lots, nearly 18 acres together, will be “conserved open space,” MacCartee said, “for protection of sensitive biological resources and steep hillsides.”
An environmental impact report determined “the project will not have a significant effect on the environment, but mitigation measures were needed as a condition of project approval,” he added.
The applicant chose not to present to the La Jolla Community Planning Association as is customary, MacCartee said; no reason was given.
“I oppose this item until such time that my experts have an opportunity to review their water management plan,” Foxhill neighbor Kathleen Vaughan, one of two public commenters, said.
“The prior owner … neutered the property and took off all of the vegetation and created a golf course,” she said, a project that caused a “massive flood and water coming onto my property” during heavy rain events.
Vaughan asked the project approval be delayed until a water management report including the impact of the addition of five pools, can be reviewed.
Neighbor Chris Connolly also asked for a delay, saying “the views for neighbors to the east of this parcel will be dramatically impacted by this development” and lengthy construction time for five large homes will “have a very negative impact on all the neighbors.”
Additionally, “very few of the neighbors are aware of this hearing today,” he said.
The Planning Commission voted unanimously to approve the project without further comment.
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