A 70-foot seawall will be built to shore up a La Jolla home threatened by coastal bluff failure after San Diego hearing officer Jeffrey Szymanski approved the project on Wednesday, Aug. 19.

The reinforced shotcrete wall at 5360 Calumet Ave. will include 21 tieback anchors at variable depths, conforming to the contours of the existing bluff face, according to La Jolla Light. City project manager Mark Lopez told the hearing the residence is "currently susceptible to deformations and damage resulting from a … failure occurring along the sensitive coastal bluff slope," citing a 2023 geotechnical report.

The vulnerability presents life and safety concerns, Lopez said.

The approval caps a two-year permitting process. The application was filed Aug. 21, 2024, and the La Jolla Development Permit Review Committee voted 4-1-1 to recommend approval on July 15, 2025, after a presentation by applicant representatives Bob Trettin and John Franklin. DPR minutes from that meeting note the bluff's factor of safety is 1.16, indicating instability, with existing patio damage at the site.

The shotcrete wall will be sculpted and color-treated to match the natural bluff, spanning the full lot width of the 0.16-acre property.

"This is the time period where that street has been hit after 50 years of having homes there," Trettin said at the Aug. 19 hearing. "The beach there has large cobbles that go out quite a ways, and when you have high winter wave activity, those cobbles are being picked up and thrown into the bluff."

Trettin also represents homeowners at 5322 and 5316 Calumet Ave., where similar bluff-failure concerns prompted emergency permit applications that were under city review as of March 2025. The current status of those applications is unclear.

The broader pattern of deterioration along Calumet Avenue has fueled a community debate over erosion mitigation, with Surfrider Foundation members arguing bluffs should erode naturally and homeowners asserting their right to protect their properties.

As a condition of approval, the homeowner must record a covenant easement preserving environmentally sensitive lands outside the development area and make a mitigation payment through the California Coastal Commission's beach sand replenishment program. The project's biologist said there will be no loss of beach and that monitoring will be added to confirm that.

Szymanski's approval becomes final in 10 business days unless an appeal is filed. The site sits within the Coastal (Appealable) overlay zone.