Manhattan Beach has no ordinance that protects a private ocean view from a new house. A neighbor who builds within the height, floor area and setback limits can block a view, and the City’s approval of the house does not turn on it. A view owner has narrower protections: the height limit over the lots in front, which cannot rise without a citywide vote; a 42-inch limit on plantings in a walk street encroachment area; height caps on fences, walls and hedges in required yards; a view easement, where one is recorded; and the state spite fence law. The California Coastal Commission’s view policy covers public views to and along the ocean.
Does Manhattan Beach have a view ordinance?
No. The Manhattan Beach Municipal Code mentions neighbors’ views in a handful of narrow permits. A small wind turbine needs a finding of no significant detrimental impact on surrounding neighbors, including light, air, noise and views, under Section 10.60.140. A roof or wall mounted wireless facility on private property is reviewed with the impact on surrounding residential views considered, under Section 13.02.090. In the Longfellow Drive area, a design overlay limits subdivision to preserve the neighborhood’s character, including views and privacy, under Section 10.44.010.
A new house is not on that list. The minor exception, a permit for limited departures from the standards, often for a remodel or addition to an existing house, requires a finding of no significant detrimental impact on neighbors, and Section 10.84.120 names privacy, access, light and air in that finding without naming views.
In the appeals reviewed for our post on building height in the Sand Section, the City and the Coastal Commission measured each new house against the height, floor area and setback standards, and the loss of a neighbor’s private view did not change the result when the house met them. In April 2018, ABC7 reported that a state appeals court had sided with the City in a challenge from a neighbor who said a new house blocked an ocean view and argued that its garage and finished basement should count as a story. The court found that the City had applied its code correctly.
If you own a view, the code holds the height limit over the lots in front of you in place, and the view above that line goes with it. If you are buying one, the view below that line belongs to whatever the neighbors are allowed to build.
How much of a view does the height limit hold?
The height limit is the most a neighbor can build, and the City Council cannot raise it on its own. In the Sand Section and El Porto, a house can rise 30 feet above the average elevation of its lot’s four corners under Section 10.12.030. A few items may go higher under Section 10.60.060: a chimney by up to five feet, vent pipes and antennas by up to 10 feet, and solar panels by up to 12 inches.
Subsection D of Section 10.60.050 bars any change to that section, whether by new rules, added exceptions or other means, that would raise the highest elevation above sea level a building on a given lot may reach, unless the change first goes to a citywide election and passes by a majority. A sale or a rebuild next door does not move that line.
Picture a line 30 feet above the four-corner average of each lot in the view line. No new house can rise into the ocean you see above those lines, apart from a chimney or a vent. The ocean you see across a one-story house on a lot allowed three stories is the part a rebuild can take. An architect or licensed land surveyor can model those lines for a specific property, and our height post works through the four-corner arithmetic on a real Strand lot.
Can a neighbor’s hedge or tree block a view?
A hedge can, up to a limit. Under Section 10.12.030, a fence, wall or hedge may stand 42 inches in a required front yard and six feet in required side and rear yards, measured from the lower adjacent grade, which can be the neighbor’s side. Extra height, up to eight feet, is allowed in limited cases, among them the written approval of each abutting owner. A hedge taller than that in a required yard does not meet the zoning code.
The City’s tree preservation rules, in Section 10.52.120, apply in Area Districts I and II and govern the removal of protected trees. They make no mention of views.
State law adds one more route. Under California Civil Code Section 841.4, a fence or other structure in the nature of a fence that unnecessarily exceeds 10 feet and is maliciously erected or maintained to annoy the neighbor is a private nuisance. In Wilson v. Handley, decided April 30, 2002, the Third District Court of Appeal held that a row of trees can qualify. In that case, an owner in Yreka had a row of evergreens planted along the property line after learning the neighbors planned a two-story house beside it, and the neighbors sued, fearing the trees would block their view of Mount Shasta. The statute requires intent to annoy, so a California real estate attorney is the one to weigh whether a particular hedge meets it.
What does a walk street owner get?
Walk streets carry the one rule in the code that orders plantings cut back for a view. In the encroachment area, the City-owned strip between a walk street home and the public walkway, plantings may not exceed 42 inches above the walkway, a limit the code sets “to promote visual openness and conserve scenic vistas.” Under Section 7.36.150, when a resident’s view is impaired, the Director of Community Development directs the adjacent owner to trim to 42 inches. If the owner does not act, the City may have the work done at that owner’s expense, and the owner may appeal. The same section directs that obstructions to neighboring residents’ scenic views be avoided.
Fences and railings in that strip must be of open design and may reach 42 inches above the walkway, or 36 inches within five feet of a street corner. Retaining walls, freestanding walls and closed fences stop at 32 inches.
For a walk street buyer, those limits cover the strip in front of every house on the walk. The houses behind them follow the same 30-foot limit as the rest of the beach area.
Can a view be protected by a recorded easement?
Yes, when one has been granted and recorded. The easements listed in California Civil Code Section 801 include the right of receiving air, light or heat from or over land, and a view is not on the list. In Petersen v. Friedman, decided in 1958, a California appeals court enforced a view easement reserved in a recorded 1942 deed on Franklin Street in San Francisco, a perpetual right to receive light, air and an unobstructed view, and affirmed an order to remove television antennas that blocked it.
A recorded view easement, or a height restriction in recorded covenants, appears on the preliminary title report as an exception, with the recording reference that leads to the full document. If you own one, the recorded document sets what it protects and from whom. If you are buying, the report shows whether one exists before you pay for a view. How to read that report is next in this series.
Does the Coastal Commission protect ocean views?
It protects public ones. Section 30251 of the Coastal Act calls the scenic and visual qualities of coastal areas “a resource of public importance” and requires new development to be sited and designed to protect views to and along the ocean and scenic coastal areas.
In Manhattan Beach the Commission has applied that to views from public places. In a 2008 finding on a three-level house on 9th Street, quoted in correspondence filed with the Commission in 2020, it noted that the City’s certified Local Coastal Program does not identify that site for view protection and that the walk street’s public view to the coast was unaffected. In a 2004 appeal over a condominium on 15th Street, Commission staff wrote that its limited jurisdiction did not let it weigh a project’s effect on a neighbor’s sunlight and air.
For a South Bay buyer, the view down a walk street to the water is a public view the Commission weighs. The view from a living room across the next roof is a private one.
How is the Palos Verdes Peninsula different?
View rules change at the city line. In Rancho Palos Verdes, voters approved Proposition M in November 1989, and the City can order foliage trimmed when it exceeds 16 feet or the roofline and significantly impairs a view, through a View Restoration or View Preservation Permit. The ordinance covers trees and other foliage. New buildings there go through height limits and neighborhood compatibility review. Our guide to the Rancho Palos Verdes view ordinance covers both permits and the court case that upheld the ordinance.
Palos Verdes Estates handles views through its own neighborhood compatibility review and the Palos Verdes Homes Association, and our Palos Verdes Estates page explains which one hears what. A buyer weighing a view home in P.V. against one in the Beach Cities is comparing different sets of rules, and the price of each view can account for that.
What should you look at before paying for a view?
If you are buying a view in Manhattan Beach, four facts set what it is worth over time:
- How much of the view passes above the most the lots in front may build.
- Whether those lots are built out to the limit, or hold one and two-story houses that a rebuild would raise.
- Whether the view runs down a walk street, where plantings in the encroachment strip stay at 42 inches.
- Whether the preliminary title report shows a recorded view easement or height covenant.
If you own a view home and plan to sell, the same four facts are the ones a buyer’s architect and attorney will ask about, and having them in hand at listing gives the buyer a measured view to price.
Who can study the view from a specific property?
The City’s Planning Division answers questions about a specific lot’s zoning and height limit at (310) 802-5520 or [email protected]. A licensed land surveyor or an architect can model what the neighboring lots are allowed to build, and our height post names two local firms that take on lot studies. A California real estate attorney handles questions about a recorded easement or a spite fence claim, and the title company issuing the preliminary report can supply copies of the recorded documents it lists.
Next in this series: how to read a preliminary title report.
Own a view in the Sand Section, the Hill Section or El Porto, weighing one in Manhattan Beach, or still working out whether the Beach Cities are where to set down roots? Send me the address and we will tell you what the public record shows about the lots in its view line.
Sources
We do our very best to supply facts drawn from official sources so that the information you find here is reliable and accurate. If we find conflicting information, we report on all of it.
- Manhattan Beach Municipal Code, version current to December 8, 2025: Section 10.60.050, Measurement of height; Section 10.60.060, Exceptions to height limits; Section 10.12.030, Property development regulations; Section 10.60.140, Sustainable development; Section 10.44.010, D Design Overlay District; Section 10.84.120, Minor exceptions; Section 10.52.120, Tree preservation; Section 7.36.150, Encroachment standards; Section 13.02.090, Telecommunications facilities on private property
- California Civil Code Section 801 and Section 841.4; California Public Resources Code Section 30251
- California Court of Appeal, Third District, Wilson v. Handley, No. C038341, April 30, 2002, read on FindLaw
- California Court of Appeal, Petersen v. Friedman (1958) 162 Cal.App.2d 245, read on Justia
- California Coastal Commission, Appeal A-5-MNB-04-137, staff report for the May 14, 2004 hearing
- California Coastal Commission, Appeals A-5-MNB-20-0020 and A-5-MNB-20-0041, addendum and correspondence, November 4, 2020
- City of Rancho Palos Verdes, View Restoration Division
- City of Manhattan Beach, Planning and Zoning
- ABC7, Neighbor dispute over Manhattan Beach ocean views settled by appellate court, April 15, 2018
This post is general information drawn from the Manhattan Beach Municipal Code, California statutes, published court opinions and public City and Coastal Commission records. It is not legal, survey, architectural, real estate, tax, lending, financial or investment advice. It is not a determination of what can be built on or near any property, which the City of Manhattan Beach makes for each project, and it is not a recommendation to buy, sell, hold, list or price any property. For a question about a specific view, easement or neighbor dispute, consult a California real estate attorney.
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