Roth Tract and Bird Section Homes for Sale, Manhattan Beach

The Roth Tract sits between Herrin Avenue and Peck Avenue in Manhattan Beach. It is sometimes referred to as the Bird Section, and both names circulate locally.

We want to be straightforward about the status of this one, because being clear about it is more useful than pretending otherwise.

Is the Bird Section an official neighborhood?

No. This is the most informal of the Manhattan Beach area names.

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. Neither the Roth Tract nor the Bird Section appears among them. There is no adopted boundary, no zoning designation and no MLS area under either name.

The Roth Tract is a tract name, which is a real thing in the sense that subdivisions are recorded – but a recorded tract is not a neighborhood designation, and it is not how listings are searched.

So if the Bird Section is what you are looking for, you will not find it as a search category. You will find it by street.

How should you search for it?

By address, within whichever MLS area contains it. The tract sits between Herrin and Peck, so the practical approach is to search the containing area and then filter to those streets.

An agent who works Manhattan Beach can identify the containing area for a specific address in a moment. That is a faster route than trying to search a name the MLS does not carry.

What rules apply?

Whatever applies to the Area District the parcel sits in. Manhattan Beach layers a base zone with one of four Area Districts, and they differ substantially:

• Area District I – minimum lot 7,500 square feet, 50 feet wide, 26 feet and two stories
• Area District II – minimum lot 4,600 square feet, 40 feet wide, 26 feet and two stories
• Area District III – minimum lot 2,700 square feet, 30 feet wide, 30 feet and three stories

Two rules worth checking for any inland Manhattan Beach address:

The tree ordinance applies in Area Districts I and II. 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.

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

All of these development standards are locked behind a citywide vote – any amendment raising height or floor area, or reducing setbacks or lot minimums, has to go to the ballot.

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 rather than assumed.

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

For an area with no official boundary and no MLS category, local knowledge is the whole game – knowing which streets people mean, which area contains them, and which Area District governs a given parcel. If you are buying or selling here, we are glad to walk a specific address with you.

Continue exploring Manhattan Beach

• Tree Section – where the tree ordinance began, with its own boundary question
• Hill Section – the largest lots in the city
• Sand Section – the coastal strip and the walk streets
• Manhattan Heights and Liberty Village – the Eastside north of the boulevard
• Mira Costa area – the Eastside south of the boulevard
• Poets Section – named in the General Plan, with no published boundary
• Manhattan Beach overview – how the sections compare