Poets Section Homes for Sale, Manhattan Beach

The Poets Section is a residential pocket in the eastern part of Manhattan Beach, named for its streets – Shelley, Tennyson, Longfellow and Keats.

It is a City-recognized neighborhood. The General Plan names it as one of three sub-areas within what the City calls the Eastside, alongside Manhattan Heights and Liberty Village. That matters, because plenty of neighborhood names circulating in this market have no official standing at all. This one does.

What it does not have is a published boundary or its own MLS area.

Where exactly is the Poets Section?

The honest answer is that no City document publishes a boundary for it. The General Plan names the Poets Section but does not map it, and Manhattan Beach publishes no neighborhood boundary map.

What can be said factually is that it sits within the Eastside, and that the poet street names are the working definition most people use.

That is worth knowing rather than glossing over. If a listing claims the Poets Section, there is no official map to check it against – only the street name.

Which MLS area is it in?

The Eastside splits along Manhattan Beach Boulevard, and the two MLS areas follow that line. North of the boulevard is the Manhattan Heights and Liberty Village area; south of it is the Mira Costa area.

So a Poets Section property will appear in one or the other depending on which side of the boulevard it sits. Search both.

What can you build here?

This depends on the same boulevard, and the difference is substantial.

• North of Manhattan Beach Boulevard is Area District II: minimum lot 4,600 square feet, minimum width 40 feet.
• South of Manhattan Beach Boulevard is Area District I: minimum lot 7,500 square feet, minimum width 50 feet.

Both carry a height limit of 26 feet and two stories, and a buildable floor area of 240 plus 0.65 times the lot area above 4,800 square feet. These standards cannot be loosened without a citywide vote.

One thing to check on a specific parcel. The City maintains design overlay districts, and one of them covers a Longfellow Drive tract with a reported minimum lot area of 17,000 square feet and a prohibition on further subdivision. Whether that overlay reaches the Poets Section’s Longfellow or a different street of the same name is not something we could confirm from a primary City source. If you are looking at a Longfellow address, confirm the overlay status with the City before making any assumption about what can be built or subdivided. A 17,000 square foot minimum is a significant constraint if it applies.

Do the tree rules apply?

Yes. The City’s private-property tree protection ordinance covers Area Districts I and II, and the Eastside falls in both. A tree with a trunk 12 inches or more in diameter, sitting at least partly in the required front yard or corner streetside yard, requires a permit to remove. Rear and interior side yard trees are not covered.

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 Poets Section?

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). Mira Costa High School is at 1401 Artesia Boulevard. Confirm assignment for a specific address with the district.

Working with an agent here

The Poets Section is a case where the name is official but the map is not, and where the boulevard a few streets away determines the lot-size regime. Both are answerable at the parcel level. If you are buying or selling here, we are glad to walk a specific address with you.

Continue exploring Manhattan Beach

• Manhattan Heights and Liberty Village – the Eastside north of the boulevard
• Mira Costa area – the Eastside south of the boulevard
• Hill Section – the largest lots in the city
• Tree Section – where the tree ordinance began
• Sand Section – the coastal strip and the walk streets
• Manhattan Village – the only gated community in the three beach cities
• Manhattan Beach overview – how the sections compare