The community of La Jolla could become San Diego County’s newest incorporated city.
The Association for the City of La Jolla is in the process of conducting a fiscal analysis and gathering data from the City of San Diego – the first step. The association would need support from 25% of La Jolla residents to sustain the effort. Residents in San Diego would then have to vote.
The application process would be handled by San Diego’s Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), which would conduct a financial assessment of its own. The entire process could take a few years.
The cities of Del Mar (San Diego) and Malibu (Los Angeles) have been helping the association navigate the process. Del Mar incorporated in 1959 and Malibu became its own city in 1991.
“The mission is to detach from the City of San Diego and provide a self-governance here in La Jolla that ultimately will uplift the entire region,” President of the Association for the City of La Jolla Trace Wilson told Fox 5. “I think the city of San Diego is stretched thin and we are just one of the communities that actually can afford ourselves and help.”
A proposed map for the City of La Jolla includes areas west of Interstate 5, from Torrey Pines State Park to Tourmaline Beach. The map does not include the University of California San Diego.
La Jolla is an affluent, seaside community just north of downtown San Diego. The current population is around 40,000.