The show will not go on in La Jolla this Fourth of July.
After state and city officials told organizers this week that the planned fireworks display would not be allowed over La Jolla Cove for lack of a needed permit, Deborah Marengo, director of the La Jolla Community Fireworks Foundation, told the
La Jolla Light on July 3 that the show is off because “we were unable to secure a location.”
Organizers had said at a July 1 news conference that they were hoping to move the show to another site, possibly La Jolla Shores.
Asked about the possibility of any alternative form of celebration, Marengo said, “I can only speak to the fireworks, and there are none.”
The city of San Diego says it is willing to work with organizers on ‘alternative celebration ideas.’
“We’ve had these fireworks for 33 of the last 36 years and never been required to get a coastal development permit,” McGrory contended.
“We are evaluating all the alternatives,” McGrory said, including moving the fireworks to La Jolla Shores, though he said it wasn’t clear whether a coastal development permit would be required there as well.
According to the city’s municipal code, temporary events like the La Jolla fireworks show can be deemed exempt from obtaining a coastal development permit. However, according to the code, there are situations that could disqualify an event from exemption, including if the city determines the event “has the potential to adversely affect . environmentally sensitive lands.”
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A lawsuit seeks to stop La Jolla’s planned Fourth of July fireworks display, citing harm that could come to local marine life.
The suit, filed in San Diego County Superior Court by San Diego environmental attorney Bryan Pease on behalf of the Animal Protection and Rescue League, “seeks to enjoin defendants Deborah Marengo, La Jolla Community Fireworks Foundation, La [Jolla] Fireworks Foundation Inc. and La Jolla Town Foundation from blasting off fireworks over La Jolla Cove at Point La Jolla, a sea lion rookery, which is an area where marine mammals give birth on land.”
Marengo is the director of the La Jolla Community Fireworks Foundation, which works with the La Jolla Town Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, as a fiscal partner for tax-deductible contributions.