Sand Section Homes for Sale, Manhattan Beach

The Sand Section is the coastal strip of Manhattan Beach, running from the shoreline inland. It holds the walk streets, The Strand, and Downtown Manhattan Beach. It is also the part of the city where the rules governing what you can build differ most from everywhere else.

Two things set the Sand Section apart, and both surprise buyers coming from inland. Lots are small but you can build tall. And a coastal development permit governs work here that would need no such permit three blocks east.

What are the walk streets?

The municipal code defines a walk street as “a street in the beach area for pedestrians where vehicular access is not permitted.” They run between The Strand and Alma Avenue in the north, and Valley Drive in the south.

Homes on them front the pedestrian way, with alleys behind providing vehicle access and garages. The City describes them as creating visual corridors that frame the ocean.

The practical consequence is that a walk street property has no street frontage in the ordinary sense. Deliveries, moving, trash and parking all happen from the alley. That is a real difference in how a home functions, and it is worth walking before you buy rather than only viewing.

What is The Strand?

The Strand is the paved beachfront path running the length of the Manhattan Beach shoreline, carrying both a bike path and a walking lane. Oceanfront homes front it directly.

For a buyer, the thing to understand is that a Strand-front property faces a continuously used public path. That is the defining feature of the location, in both directions.

What does a coastal development permit mean here?

This is the most consequential rule in the Sand Section, and most listings never mention it.

Manhattan Beach has had a certified Local Coastal Program since 12 May 1994, which means the City issues its own coastal development permits rather than routing them to the California Coastal Commission. The Local Coastal Program is codified separately from the main zoning title, and Chapter A.74 was added to it on 1 April 2025 by Ordinance 25-0004.

Two consequences matter:

• On The Strand and Ocean Drive, a 10 percent addition triggers a coastal development permit that the identical work further inland would not require.
• A coastal development permit is not effective until all appeals are exhausted, including any appeal to the Coastal Commission. That is a timeline to build into a plan, not a formality.

None of this is a barrier. It is a sequence, and it is knowable before you write an offer rather than after.

What can you build in the Sand Section?

The Sand Section is Area District III in the City’s zoning system, which pairs a base zone with an area district. For single-family property the standards are:

• Minimum lot area 2,700 square feet
• Minimum lot width 30 feet
• Maximum height 30 feet and three stories
• Buildable floor area factor 1.60

Compare that with the Hill Section, which requires a 7,500-square-foot minimum lot but caps height at 26 feet and two stories. The Sand Section has the smallest lots in the city and also the most permissive height and floor-area rules. That inversion explains a great deal about what gets built here.

These standards also cannot be loosened without a citywide vote. The code locks any amendment that would raise height limits, raise buildable floor area, or reduce setbacks or minimum lot dimensions behind a ballot measure.

Do the tree removal rules apply here?

No. The City’s private-property tree protection ordinance covers Area Districts I and II, and the Sand Section is specifically excluded. The ordinance was adopted in 1993 for the Tree Section and expanded citywide in 2003, with the Sand Section carved out.

Street and parkway trees are a separate matter and do require a Public Works permit anywhere in the city.

Which schools serve the Sand Section?

Manhattan Beach Unified School District serves the whole city. Unlike neighboring Redondo Beach Unified, MBUSD publishes per-address elementary attendance boundaries, so assignment can be confirmed from a published map rather than estimated.

The district’s 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), all kindergarten through fifth grade. Mira Costa High School, at 1401 Artesia Boulevard, opened 30 September 1950 and serves grades nine through twelve. Confirm the assignment for any specific address with the district.

Working with a Sand Section agent

The Sand Section rewards knowing the rules before you commit to a property. Walk street or street frontage, coastal permit exposure, the alley configuration and the area district all change what a given address actually is. If you are buying or selling here, we are glad to walk a specific address with you, and our Manhattan Beach overview covers how the sections compare.

Continue exploring Manhattan Beach

• 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 – the Eastside north of the boulevard
• Mira Costa area – the Eastside south of the boulevard
• El Porto – the northern end, with the most permissive building rules
• Downtown Manhattan Beach – the mixed commercial and residential core
• The Strand – the beachfront frontage and its permit threshold
• American Martyrs – a pocket within this area
• Gas Lamp Section – carries a City design overlay
• Poets Section – named in the General Plan
• Roth Tract and Bird Section – between Herrin and Peck
• Manhattan Beach overview – how the sections compare