Manhattan Beach measures building height from a flat, level plane set at the average elevation of a lot’s four corners, using the ground as it was before any work began. In the beach area, which takes in the Sand Section and El Porto, a house can rise 30 feet above that plane and hold three stories. A second test keeps any part of the building from standing more than 36 feet above the ground beneath it.
How does Manhattan Beach measure building height?
Section 10.60.050 of the Manhattan Beach Municipal Code sets a two-step test. First, a licensed surveyor records the existing ground elevation at each of the lot’s four corners. The average of those four numbers is the reference elevation, and the height limit is measured straight up from it, as one level ceiling over the whole lot.
Second, no part of the building may stand more than 20 percent over the limit, measured from existing grade or finished grade, whichever is lower. Where the limit is 30 feet, that second ceiling is 36 feet.
The first ceiling stays level even when the lot slopes, so on a lot that falls toward the ocean the house can stand taller on its downhill side. The arithmetic is easy to do in your head: anywhere the ground sits more than six feet below the four-corner average, the 36-foot test becomes the lower of the two ceilings and sets the roof line there.
What does the four-corner average look like on a Strand lot?
In 2020 the California Coastal Commission reviewed a house planned for two adjoining oceanfront lots in the 1300 block of The Strand. Srour & Associates of Hermosa Beach represented the applicant with the City. The architect’s height exhibit in the Commission’s record lists the corner elevations as 86.88, 95.40, 95.19 and 86.24 feet. They average 90.93 feet, so the roof could reach no higher than 120.93 feet. The design topped out at 119.96 feet, less than a foot below the limit, and about 90 percent of the roof sat three to four feet lower than that.
That lot drops a little more than nine feet from its high corners to its low ones. Against the 120.93-foot ceiling, the roof could sit about 34.7 feet above the lowest corner and 25.5 feet above the highest one. The lowest corner sits 4.7 feet below the average, inside the six-foot margin, so the 36-foot test never took over on that lot.
Those elevations were not heights above sea level. In a note filed with the Commission, the project’s civil engineer explained that the survey used an assumed benchmark of 100.00 feet on a well monument at 15th Street and Ocean Drive, which put every number about 44.5 feet above its true elevation. The height math still worked, because the test compares the lot to itself. A survey compared with flood maps or sea level data has to be converted first, and the benchmark note on the survey says which reference it uses.
If you own a lot that slopes, the four-corner average decides how much house fits on the low side, and the survey is the document that proves it. If you are buying a house to rebuild, the four numbers on the existing survey set the space a new house can fill, before any designer draws a floor plan.
Which parts of Manhattan Beach get the 30-foot limit?
The City’s zoning pairs each base zone with an area district, and the height limit follows the area district. In Area District III, the beach area that takes in the Sand Section, and Area District IV at the north end around El Porto, residential lots are allowed 30 feet and three stories under Section 10.12.030. Lots there run from 2,700 to 7,000 square feet, with a minimum width of 30 feet.
In Area Districts I and II, single-family and medium-density lots stop at 26 feet and two stories, and high-density lots get 30 feet. For a South Bay buyer comparing a Sand Section lot with one in the Hill Section, the smaller beach lot can carry the taller house. The area district for any address appears on the City’s zoning map and in its GIS parcel report, both reached from the City’s zoning and development regulations page.
Who decides the elevation when a lot corner sits on a wall?
On an older beach lot, a retaining wall, a wall on the property line or a raised planter can sit right where a corner reading would be taken. In that case the code hands the decision to the Community Development Director, who selects an elevation that limits the impact on neighboring properties and keeps the height limits of adjacent lots reasonably consistent. The Director’s choice can be appealed under the City’s appeal chapter.
Two appeals on the public record show how these readings get tested. In October 2019 an appeal of the City’s coastal permit for a three-story house on a 1,348-square-foot lot on Manhattan Avenue argued that the southwest corner elevation had been set too high, and City staff recommended that the Planning Commission uphold the approval.
In a 2004 case over a two-unit condominium on 15th Street, a neighbor’s survey company disagreed with the applicant’s elevations. The applicant’s agent was Srour & Associates. The City’s planner told the City Council that the applicant’s survey and the survey used for the neighboring building in 1981 differed by less than two inches. The Council affirmed the approval, and Coastal Commission staff recommended that the neighbor’s appeal be found to raise no substantial issue.
If you own next to a lot about to be rebuilt, the corner elevations on the applicant’s survey are the numbers that set the new roof. If you are buying a lot with walls at its corners, the Planning Division can say how those corners have been read before a designer relies on a height.
Can the City raise the height limit?
The City Council cannot raise it on its own. 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. The code names the March 1997 referendum on Ordinance 1933, titled Measurement of Height, as part of the law it protects.
For an owner, the method on the books is the method to plan around. For a buyer paying for a lot’s height, that number cannot grow without a vote of the city.
When does a lower level count as a story?
The three-story cap makes the line between a basement and a story decide how much living space a beach-area house can hold. Under the City’s definitions in Section 10.04.030, a lower level counts as a story if the floor above it sits more than four feet above local grade for more than half of the building’s perimeter, or more than six feet above local grade at any point. A floor can be split, part basement and part story, and any part that counts as a story is treated as at least 20 feet deep from the wall that makes it one.
Local grade is measured at the lowest nearby ground. The City’s building height handout defines it as the lowest point on a line from the wall out five feet, or out to the property line when the line is closer, using existing or finished ground, whichever is lower. Walls and grading at the edge of the lot change that reading. In the 2004 15th Street case, City staff told the City Council that a wall on the property line was needed for the lower level to meet the basement definition.
In April 2018, ABC7 reported that a state appeals court had sided with the City in a neighbor’s challenge to a new house on a slope, where the neighbor argued that the garage and finished basement should count as a story. The station’s report says the City measures from the highest point on the lot. The code sets the plane at the average of the four corners, and the code text is the standard used in this post.
For a buyer, a finished lower level counts as a basement only if the City classified it as one, and the approved plans show which it is.
What can go on the roof?
Where the limit is 30 feet, a deck may sit directly above the third story if it is adjacent to interior living space. Its interior side setback is three times the minimum, its rear setback is 15 feet in Area Districts III and IV, and its surface can sit no higher than nine feet below the height limit, which puts the deck floor 21 feet above the reference elevation. A green roof is allowed only where a deck would be.
Section 10.60.060 lets a few items go over the limit: vent pipes and antennas by up to 10 feet, a chimney by up to five feet within a three-by-five-foot footprint, and solar panels by up to 12 inches. The list does not include railings, skylights or elevator housings.
On lots 35 feet wide or wider, a side or rear yard beside a wall taller than 24 feet, not counting the roof, gets three more feet. A lot under 35 feet wide skips the side-yard increase, which covers the standard 30-foot beach lot.
How do architects and surveyors design to the limit?
The City’s permit checklist for single-family projects calls for a boundary and topographic survey stamped and signed by a licensed land surveyor. The plans list the maximum building height and the number of stories, and the exterior elevation drawings show building height.
The code lets the Community Development Director require ground contours at intervals no greater than five feet, for the site and, if needed, parts of the neighboring lots, along with the elevations of the adjacent curbs. New construction that grades or scrapes the lot needs a survey before a demolition or building permit is issued, and the Director requires survey markers to be set.
During construction, the City’s Building Height Certification form has a licensed surveyor or civil engineer measure the highest point of the completed framing, before roofing goes on, and record it beside the four-corner reference elevation, the maximum allowed and an allowance for the roofing material. The Strand house above shows how close designers work: its highest point sat less than a foot under the limit.
The stamped survey and the height certification are part of the City’s permit file for a house, and a buyer can ask for both during escrow.
What does the Coastal Commission review on height?
Manhattan Beach has a certified Local Coastal Program, the City’s coastal rules as approved by the California Coastal Commission. The Commission certified the program in May 1994, so the City issues its own coastal development permits. The program holds homes in the coastal zone to 30 feet, measured from the average of the four corners.
A City coastal permit for a project within 300 feet of the beach can be appealed to the Commission, and in Manhattan Beach that boundary is mapped inside the Manhattan Avenue right of way. A 10-working-day appeal period begins when the Commission receives the City’s notice of final action.
On appeal, the Commission checks the project against the certified program and the Coastal Act’s public access policies. In the 2004 15th Street appeal, Commission staff wrote that the Commission’s limited jurisdiction did not let it weigh a project’s effect on a neighbor’s sunlight and air, and that an easement dispute between neighbors was not its to settle.
On the oceanfront, its review can reach past height. The 2020 house in the 1300 block of The Strand came in under 30 feet, and the Commission still denied it on November 4, 2020, finding that replacing four homes with one conflicted with the density the program sets for that area and that the house was too large for the surrounding blocks. In February 2022 a Superior Court judgment upheld the Commission’s findings on community character and sent the demolition question back to it, and Commission staff again recommended denial at a June 2022 rehearing. For an oceanfront buyer, meeting the 30-foot limit is the first test, and the Commission can also weigh the size, density and character of the block.
Does Manhattan Beach protect a neighbor’s ocean view?
In the appeals reviewed for this post, the City and the Commission measured each new house against the height, floor area and setback standards in the code, and the loss of a neighbor’s private view did not change the result when the house met them. The Commission’s view policy covers public views. In its 2008 finding on a three-level house on 9th Street, quoted in correspondence filed with the Commission in 2020, it noted that the certified program does not identify the site for view protection and that the walk street’s public view to the coast was unaffected.
Walk streets carry a height rule of their own. Landscaping in a walk street encroachment area, the City-owned strip in front of a walk-street home, is limited to 42 inches above the public walkway, and the City can direct an owner to trim plantings to that height when a resident’s view is impaired under Section 7.36.150. Ocean views get their own post next in this series.
Where does the title report fit?
A preliminary title report is the document a title company issues before closing, listing who owns the property and what is recorded against it. A recorded height restriction or view easement would appear there. The standard California owner’s policy excludes building and zoning laws, so title insurance covers a zoning height problem only through a separate zoning endorsement: ALTA 3.1 for a finished building, or ALTA 3.2 for land under development. Stewart’s underwriting guidelines prefer a letter from the zoning department and, where possible, a statement from the surveyor or architect before one is issued. How to read a preliminary title report follows in this series.
Who can study a specific lot?
The City’s Planning Division answers questions about a specific lot at (310) 802-5520 or [email protected].
For a full lot study, Srour & Associates in Hermosa Beach lists city entitlement applications and coastal development applications through the Coastal Commission among its services, and Salt & Timber Group lists architecture and design, permit expediting and entitlements. You do not have to be a REALTOR® or a builder to contact either firm about your own property. Our post on fixer, remodel and tear-down covers how a builder prices a lot compared with a buyer who plans to live in the house.
Next in this series: whether an ocean view is protected in Manhattan Beach, then how to read a preliminary title report.
Own in the Sand Section or El Porto, weighing a lot 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 for it.
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 10.04.030, Definitions
- City of Manhattan Beach, Building Height Requirements handout
- City of Manhattan Beach, Building Height Certification form
- City of Manhattan Beach, Single Family Residential Projects permit checklist
- City of Manhattan Beach, Appeal of Coastal Development Permit CA19-06, Planning Commission, October 9, 2019
- City of Manhattan Beach, Section 7.36.150, Encroachment standards
- City of Manhattan Beach, Zoning and Development Regulations, Coastal Permit Procedures and Planning and Zoning pages
- 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
- California Coastal Commission, Appeals A-5-MNB-20-0020 and A-5-MNB-20-0041, rehearing staff report, June 2022
- ABC7, Neighbor dispute over Manhattan Beach ocean views settled by appellate court, April 15, 2018
- Stewart Title, CLTA Preliminary Report Form, Exhibit A and Guideline: ALTA Endorsement 3.1
This post is general information drawn from the Manhattan Beach Municipal Code and public City and Coastal Commission records. It is not legal, survey, architectural, engineering, real estate, tax, lending, financial or investment advice. It is not a determination of what can be built on 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. Chhabria Real Estate Company receives no compensation for referrals to the firms named in this post.
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