The district would edge the perimeter of the campus and extend into surrounding areas of La Jolla, with the aim to demarcate campus and encourage visitors.
UC San Diego is planning to create a banner district in La Jolla Shores, though community questions have arisen about exactly where the banners will go outside the university.
The banner district would enhance the university’s visibility as UCSD “is a value to the community,” said Erin Shepler, who works in UCSD marketing, in presenting to the La Jolla Shores Association April 16.
A banner district allows a nonprofit or a commercial entity to put pole banners up on city streets for purposes not related to profit, politics or religion, she said.
Anu Delouri, UCSD director of campus community relations, first presented the banner district proposal March 18 at the La Jolla Traffic & Transportation Board, with the board asking UCSD instead to present to LJSA as the item was less relevant to T&T’s purview.
UCSD worked with city of San Diego officials and the city’s Economic Development Department staff to develop the banner district boundaries, which border the campus: Genesee Avenue to the north, Regents Road to the east, La Jolla Village Drive to the south, and North Torrey Pines Road to the west.
The banners will look similar to these.
There will also be portions of La Jolla Shores Drive south past Scripps Institution of Oceanography and other, shorter offshoots.
Banners would be on both sides of the streets; there are 175 poles in the identified area, though UCSD is not sure yet how many are “viable” for banners, Shepler said.
“We’ll evaluate where the most strategic places are once we get this completed.”
A banner district would help build “local pride” in UCSD, Shepler said, and encourage public engagement with many aspects of the university including public art, restaurants and athletic events.
“One of the challenges with the university is there’s not a clear entry point to it,” Shepler said. “The banners can help create a welcoming environment for people who are coming to the area.”
The banners – designed and funded by UCSD – would be “a general, photo-based banner that just shows some of the highlights of the campus experience with the university’s name and text,” she said.
LJSA members had questions about the portions of the banner district that extend into residential and commercial areas beyond the university into the La Jolla Shores planned community boundary, worried about encroachment into LJSA’s purview, competition with banners promoting Shores-related activities and businesses and questions over who would maintain the light poles where banners are placed.
The item was placed on the LJSA meeting agenda as an action item, but LJSA President John Pierce said it would be difficult to support the proposal without clarification on where exactly banners would overlap with Shores streets.
Pierce and other board members asked UCSD to consider taking out La Jolla Shores Drive, the south side of La Jolla Village Drive and the west side of North Torrey Pines Road; Pierce also requested UCSD to return next month with a more specific map of where banners would be placed in those three areas.
“We don’t need a motion to proceed” with the banner proposal, Delouri said. It is not clear whether UCSD will return at a later LJSA meeting.
In withdrawing his earlier motion not to support the banner district, LJSA board member Mike McCormack expressed irritation with UCSD’s seeming dismissal of LJSA’s take on the proposal.
“That’s not community partnership,” he said. “We don’t even matter in the whole equation here.”
“Let’s see if we can find a compromise that works for The Shores,” LJSA member Cindy Goodman said.
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