Oceanside Coastal Zone Building Heights

Recently, the Oceanside, CA City Council addressed building height issues in the coastal neighborhood south of Wisconsin St.  The intended greatest single family dwelling building height allowed for the past 20 years has been 27 ft.  Since discovering the 27 ft ordinance had never been ratified by the California Coastal Commission, the council was faced with the decision to either rewrite the ordinance to preserve the intended 27 feet maximum height allowance, or allow the ordinance to default to the 1986 standard of 35 feet.

The council majority, expressed a reluctance to modify the approved coastal plan, citing a hesitation to open the entire plan to commission scrutiny.  They elected to allow the height allowance to revert to the 1986 building height allowance of 35 feet. This decision, strongly advocated by a Political Action Committee comprised of oceanfront property owners, seemingly expands the building envelope, and therefore enhances those property values as thirty-five feet of building height implies an additional story of allowable living space.

A review of the broader intent of the ordinance exposes conflict. The 27 feet ordinance measured elevation from grade of any point on the subject property.  The 35 ft. building envelope measures average grade extracted from the elevations of Pacific St. and the beach.  The building profile from Pacific St. may be substantially less than 35 feet. Also, a parcel zoned R1 (residential) or RT (tourism with an option for development as R1), the development plan is limited to two stories. Therefor, only on parcels where the topography characteristics allow a “basement”, day-lighting to the beach to sandwich between the elevation differential of the beach & Pacific St., a third story is essentially allowed.

This issue, simplistic at firsts blush, invites property owners to pursue a development plan of 35 feet in height. However, language within the zoning ordinance requires the development plan to mesh with the existing character of the neighborhood, This element may suppress height allowance. Additionally, the mandate to notify all property owners within a 300 foot radius of proposed development, host a neighborhood meeting, and solicit the needed support will also suppress building height, as taller oceanfront homes will diminish the sights, sounds, and smells of the ocean to the rest of the beach community.

The entitlement process,- lengthy, costly, and uncertain, clearly shall become more subjective. Complexities and conflicting messages will eventually necessitate visitation of this element of the building ordinance within the coastal zone.

When this occurs, the better approach might be to center the consideration of expanding property rights on the broader application of economic impact to both beach front owners, and others in the beach community.  No attempt is made here to vilify those owners west of Pacific St. Contrarily, if I possessed real estate on the beach,I most likely would be standing with them.  Pursuit of fairness advocates both sides of this highly financial issue be evaluated within the proper considerations to those with reason to be opposed.  The true measure of proper resolution rests with analysis of economic benefit to the subject property in contrast to the economic impact of surrounding properties.

                                                    Paul Zocco,  ZDI

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