Mira Costa Area Homes for Sale, Manhattan Beach

The Mira Costa area sits in the eastern part of Manhattan Beach, south of Manhattan Beach Boulevard. Two things about it are worth knowing before you search, and both are counterintuitive.

It is not a City-recognized neighborhood, and the school it is named for is not in it.

Is Mira Costa an official Manhattan Beach neighborhood?

No. The City’s General Plan identifies seven neighborhoods: the Sand Section, Downtown, North End and El Porto, the Tree Section, the Hill Section, Manhattan Village, and the Eastside. Mira Costa is not among them.

The area sits inside what the City calls the Eastside, and the City names three Eastside sub-areas: the Poets Section, Manhattan Heights and Liberty Village. Mira Costa is not one of those either.

It is an MLS search designation. That makes it entirely real for the purpose of finding listings, and it is what agents and portals use. It just does not correspond to a boundary the City has drawn, so there is no official map to check it against.

Where is it?

South of Manhattan Beach Boulevard, within the Eastside. The General Plan describes the broader Eastside as bounded by Marine Avenue, Aviation Boulevard, Artesia Boulevard and Sepulveda Boulevard.

Manhattan Beach Boulevard is the working line. North of it is the Manhattan Heights and Liberty Village area; south of it is this one.

Is Mira Costa High School in the Mira Costa area?

No. The school is at 1401 Artesia Boulevard, which falls north of Manhattan Beach Boulevard and therefore in the Manhattan Heights and Liberty Village area.

This matters practically. If you are searching this area specifically because of the high school, you have narrowed to the area next to the one containing it. The school serves the entire district regardless, so assignment is not the issue. Proximity is.

Mira Costa High School opened on 30 September 1950 and serves grades nine through twelve for all of Manhattan Beach.

What can you build here?

Here is the fact most likely to change how you read listings in this area.

The Eastside south of Manhattan Beach Boulevard falls in Area District I – the same district as the Hill Section. That means the same lot standards as the largest-lot part of the city:

• Minimum lot area 7,500 square feet
• Minimum lot width 50 feet
• Maximum height 26 feet and two stories
• Buildable floor area 240 plus 0.65 times the lot area above 4,800 square feet

Compare that with the area immediately north across Manhattan Beach Boulevard, which sits in Area District II with a 4,600-square-foot minimum. The same boulevard that splits the two MLS areas also splits two different lot-size regimes. That is a real difference in what can be built, and it is invisible from an address line.

Confirm the Area District for a specific parcel rather than assuming, since district boundaries and MLS area boundaries are drawn for different purposes and do not always align.

These standards cannot be loosened without a citywide vote.

Do the tree rules apply?

Yes. The City’s tree protection ordinance covers Area Districts I and II, so it applies here. A tree with a trunk 12 inches or more in diameter, sitting at least partly in the required front yard or corner streetside yard, needs a permit to remove. Rear and interior side yard trees are not covered, and deciduous fruit trees and Washingtonia palms are excluded.

Parkway trees fall under a separate chapter, and the adjacent property owner normally bears maintenance and removal cost rather than the City.

Which schools serve the area?

Manhattan Beach Unified serves the whole city and publishes per-address elementary attendance boundaries, unlike neighboring Redondo Beach Unified. Assignment can be confirmed from a published map.

District elementary schools are Grand View (455 24th Street), Meadows (1200 Meadows Avenue), Pacific (1200 Pacific Avenue), Pennekamp (110 South Rowell) and Robinson (80 Morningside Drive). Confirm assignment for a specific address with the district.

Working with an agent here

This area rewards precision, because its name is an MLS convention rather than a City boundary and the lot-size regime changes across the boulevard. If you are buying or selling here, we are glad to walk a specific address with you.

Continue exploring Manhattan Beach

• Sand Section – the coastal strip, walk streets and The Strand
• Tree Section – where the tree ordinance began
• Hill Section – the largest lots in the city
• Manhattan Village – the only gated community in the three beach cities
• Manhattan Heights and Liberty Village – north of the boulevard, and home to the high school
• Manhattan Beach overview – how the sections compare