The La Jolla project continued to garner neighbor objections, but permit reviewers noted plans are not too dissimilar from proximal lots.
A month after being voted down and despite continued objection from adjacent neighbors, a project to rebuild a large home at 8303 Prestwick Dr received a recommendation for approval from the La Jolla Shores Permit Review Committee Feb 19.
The plans propose new construction of a 6,169-square-foot, single-family residence on a vacant lot with a buried, 2,374-square-foot basement for parking, utility and storage.
The project has undergone several local reviews, with PRC voting to not recommend approval after the applicant’s representative, Roger Sammon, asked for a vote in January.
Sammon has since met with many of the neighbors, he said Feb 19, showing a graphic indicating most neighbors nearest to the property support the project.
The adjacent neighbor to the north, George Keane, however, maintained his objections to the plans that the home is too big for the lot, the setbacks are not large enough and one of the several meetings between the applicant team and Prestwick residents was eroded by one neighbor’s comments and as a result, “there was no collaborative discussion about or exchange of potential alternatives about these concerns.”
An analysis of the Prestwick Drive neighborhood showed that with respect to building square footage, Sammon said, the project ranks fifth out of the 20 residences in a 300-foot radius.
In terms of front yard setbacks, the home ranks 12th out of 20, Sammon said.
Sammon also presented comparison drawings showing the evolution of the plans and that “we’ve made adjustments along the way, at cost to the owners, in order to respond to some of those items that we were in agreement … could be improved.”
A few more Prestwick neighbors spoke both for and against the project.
Approval of the project “will permanently change the character of the neighborhood,” Prestwick resident Pat Miller said. “Having such a large house encroaching on the street and … the native, natural landscape in the back of the canyon increases the risk of fires and a danger to not only the property itself, but to immediate neighbors.”
Neighbor Burt Bondy asked PRC to approve the plans, calling the objections raised by Keane and others “a delaying tactic to try to run up additional expenses” for the owners.
Noting he was interested by the graphic showing most neighbors support the project, PRC Chair Andy Fotsch added that the home placing fifth for square footage in the neighborhood “is not pushing the limits.”
“Neighborhoods grow and evolve,” he said.
Though the project’s “bulk and scale may not be to everyone’s liking,” PRC member John Shannon agreed, “this is really the direction that communities move.”
A motion to recommend approval of the project passed 4-2-1, with Fotsch customarily abstaining.
