As they say, “One person’s shack is another’s beautiful historic beach cottage.”
And yesterday, Monday, Feb.3, a wonderful beach cottage was demolished in less than an hour at 4962 Saratoga Avenue.
A local neighbor was upset and contacted the District 2 City Council office and the planning department. They confirmed that no demolition permit was issued. Plus, there was no notification to neighbors on the impending development or demolition.
The concerned neighbor wonders, ‘did the structure contain as asbestos?’ Other questions: ‘Did the city determine there were adequate parking requirements followed when issuing the building permit?’
The neighbor told the Rag, “As a near property owner, I was not given any notice of development.” When the neighbor contact District 2 office, they were told, “the Code Enforcement Division has been notified and should be out there inspecting the site soon.”
It’s unclear whether the demolished cottage met the standards to be legally called “historic” but the photos tell part of the story.
It’s almost like half a century of notice requirements have been thrown out the window.
The City needs to inflict strong penalties againt this developer or make them rebuild the building as it was before. If the penalties are not severe enough developers will continue to break the law and traumatize neighborhoods.
We had a neighbor in the exclusive community of Sands Point, New York who knocked an older house HUGE over 6000 square feet, pool house, tennis court, etc, due to the VERY high cost of renovating the place.
They did the math and for what kitchens, bathrooms, etc., cost today $$$ it was cost effective less money to knock the house down illegally, pay a few fines $$$, than to renovate the HUGE 1970s colonial.
The conditions for the new house include staying within the “footprint” of the original house.
Couldn’t agree more!
Why are there no recent sales records on the usual websites for this property? Zillow, Redfin, etc. all show it was last sold in 2019. Yet, neighbors report that a neighbor just recently bought it. Curious.
Could it have been an off market sale? We have problems with off market sales in our neighborhood. Entire properties have been gutted without permits. It can take up to 2 months for the City/DSD to respond to these unpermitted remodels.
I think in the pro-developer world we live in here in San Diego builders feel they have permission to not follow the rules. I have been told as much.
That developer in charge should lose his Contractor’s license immediately, before ever being issued another permit to build or destroy any structures of any sort if that’s really the case!
And how does destroying a beautiful home ( https://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Diego/4962-Saratoga-Ave-92107/home/5330529 ) help anyone with affordable housing? This house was larger than many of the ADU’s being built. I’m sure that the 2 new homes (see 3rd paragraph) will be less expensive, if the plan hasn’t been changed.
I found a demo permit https://aca-prod.accela.com/SANDIEGO/Cap/CapDetail.aspx?Module=DSD&TabName=DSD&capID1=REC24&capID2=00000&capID3=0218C&agencyCode=SANDIEGO&IsToShowInspection= that says that it cleared historic in 2021 (applied for in 2024).
I also found this notice of right to appeal from 2022 https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/dsd-nora_03-25-2022_digital_thoma_cdp.pdf which says 2 story and 3 story houses will be built on this small lot.
Good work, Jane! Thank you.
If it’s your property and you are not directly affecting other people’s livelihoods or properties then you should be able to do whatever the heck you darn well please. If you would like to tear down your own home just for the hell of it, then go ahead. I think everyone should mind their own business. Looking for local government to step in and ” do something” is the mindset of a statist. The statist mindset is aggressively damaging to individual freedom.
One hasn’t been able to do whatever one pleases with their property for over a century. So, tear down your house in a residential zone and put in a pig farm. Will your neighbors mind? (And this is no slight to the pigs!) Build a 20 story building on your little plot. Does that sound reasonable. There’s been legal, building codes for many, many decades. And most of them make sense. Please come up to speed on this issue.
I’m a licensed B and C-10 electrical contractor for many decades. The gross overreach of our government is disgustingly abhorrent! I stand by my words. I would love for our nation to revert back to our original constitutional law status! That does mean unwinding a gross amount of government laws and oversight that is a violation of human rights and constitutional rights. I’m just well over any government body having any say over any individual or their property. I don’t really care for unconstitutional and illegal precedent as a basis for maintaining the status quo. I understand the origin and history of building codes. That is different than what you can or can’t do with your own property.
Appreciate that, James. But does that mean you’re down with how this cottage, historic as it is, was demolished without notice or knowledge of any permit, without any kind of neighborhood oversight?
I’m absolutely okay with it. Did they damage, destroy or injure anyone else’s property or persons? Who are the victims? I firmly believe that the entire permitting and oversight process / extortion system should be completely destroyed and it’s pieces cast into oblivion. I think there area perfectly acceptable ways that we can build to code for safety and longevity of a structure without creating the bloated extortion/racket system that we call a permit and approval process.
You’re the victim. Someone is building a big idiotic shitbox and it’s going to block your sun. Your plants are going to die, your kids don’t come around anymore, no one wants to hang out in your shitty cold yard. You’re getting old and boring and you’re going to wind up dying in the frigid shadow of a dumb fucken mausoleum that some rich asshole built where your fun summer day used to be.
I can dig on what you’re saying 100%
Then move… It isn’t their fault that all of those things are happening to you because of where you choose to live .
If you don’t want your neighbors shit in your water, move upstream.
What kind of logic is this. Some prick is about to pave over paradise and you’re saying it’s not their fault? Who’s fault is it then? Someone is about to replace my neighbors joy with misery. All our lives made less happy, everyone around the big ball of drywall made to suffer, why? So someone can pretend their pathetic mcmansion gives their life meaning. Get real.
Stockton Rush had a strikingly similar line of thinking. At least no one got hurt from his decision making!
Every single code or law stems from need and people bellyaching about something. The balance between too many regulations & not enough is tenuous. Look at it this way….if u don’t think I should have some say about how you develop your property then you certainly cannot have a say about what I do with my body.
A pig farm or 20 story building does affect the neighbors. Removing an old home and building an up to date modern home that’s equivalent really doesn’t. Many old homes in OB have a lot of mold issues that make it cost prohibitive to just simply repair. Anyhow I miss old OB when it was one of the cheapest places in SD to rent. Beach community with El Cajon prices ?
That is a reasonable reply. Just take a look at Oceanside Ca. One can’t even see the ocean anymore unless you are on the beach.
Unfortunately, ” …should be able to” isn’t the law we all have to abide by, living in such close quarters to neighbors that would be affected by things as simple as gas and water being turned off or left on, endangering neighbors with the threat of flooding or explosions.
Agreed!
Why are neighbors in the beach where I grew up crawling up neighbors butts with their holier than thou mentality?!
Treat others as you want to be treated. In peace!
“I firmly believe that the entire permitting and oversight process / extortion system should be completely destroyed and it’s pieces cast into oblivion“
You’re entitled to your beliefs and bad grammar but the law is the law. The majority of us want reasonable standards in place to protect our neighborhoods from destructive overdevelopment.
Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands as the paperwork (politics) is a nightmare to get anything done. At least now the owner car get the rebuild done quicker.
Que paso? Hola
Who cares they knocked down a property they own. Complaining about somebody else destroying a house they bought isn’t tour business. Now if it’s 20 stories or a pig farm that’s different, bur it’s not. I see a bunch of old grumpy people who are grandfathered into low taxes and can’t afford the area need to move. It’s a million dollar neighborhood now just face it. My uncles from Mexico bought 6 houses in OB full guts, air bnbs. Did it ourselves, don’t call us when your toilet breaks you snobs!
I care because in the meantime the city is allowing 8 unit apartment buildings to be built on single family home lots (with no parking). This used to be illegal. Now the narrow streets are full of parked cars and delivery trucks are double parked. And our aged infrastructure is not improved because the developers do not pay development impact fees (like they used to). And the reason is “for affordable housing”. Well, make those air bibs illegal and don’t allow teardowns for no good reason and you will have more affordable housing.
Over regulation is why we have no housing & only the rich can afford property. I can’t freaking believe how many people are against freedom. We’ve lost the ability to homestead & be self reliant. People are so brainwashed to the norm they don’t understand why we need change & deregulation to improve our lives, not make it unaffordable & miserable. I didn’t vote for 47 but I’m not upset that the government is getting gutted. These people need to be held accountable & I put much of the blame the lawyers who refuse to stand up for what’s right & bend the knee to the BAR & politicians. We need more people who are standing up against corruption instead of laying in bed with it…
William — that’s a lot of bull pucky. The lack of affordable housing is NOT because there is “over-regulation” but because there is not enough and the rich and their developer friends have been allowed to pretty much build only market-rate housing and were not forced to include more reasonably marketed housing that many could afford.
The proof of the pudding is all the abuse of the ADU regulations that Mayor Gloria has allowed. 17 ADUs approved and built in one backyard in Clairemont???
Since when does incentivizing the destruction of privately owned single family homes in favor of corporate owned apartment buildings make it easier for individuals to “homestead?” Wake up. A new feudal system is being implemented at lightning speed and our politicians are either gullible or complicit.
Bull pucky eh.. what an intelligent Come back. So you’re trying to tell me the rich haven’t used regulations to choke the housing supply off to the poor & enhance themselves? Really? Who’s really spouting bull pucky…. I’ll wait… Seriously, we need to reinstate the constitution & go after monopolies. I’m guessing you’re a nimby guy.
Yeah, here’s your telltale “intelligent” statement: “People are so brainwashed to the norm they don’t understand why we need change & deregulation to improve our lives, not make it unaffordable & miserable. I didn’t vote for 47 but I’m not upset that the government is getting gutted.” So, you’re okay it appears that our federal government is being hollowed out by the richest man in the world – all the while you decry the rich for their monopolies. Of course the rich have used rules and laws to enrich themselves – so at least we agree on that. The people trying to destroy the Constitution is “47” and his henchmen.
High density housing is an assault on affordable housing. The rich want to be landlords. Housing shouldn’t be something we have to fight for… Have you driven thru this vast state & seen the amount of open space available? We can do better as a society if we start educating ourselves & stop listening to the propaganda. We have the resources, space & ability. We don’t have the compassion & empathy as a society. We’ve been divided by a few & a few more infect others with the pucky. We need to start using logic & reason moving forward. These municipalities acting like an overbearing HOA is bull pucky…. We’re supposed to be living in a free society. We have a situation in California where a non-profit in a city 500 miles away from a build can cost a developer months, millions or shelves a project completely which has cost the state billions in development. I seriously employ you to seriously rethink your perspective. We have a few people who need to be held accountable. Getty, Brown, Pelosi, Newsom have been running this state since before I was born & I’m old. In over 50 years nobody has held them accountable for the crimes against humanity happening around us. I’m disgusted by what I’ve seen & experienced in this country. There’s no reason for it, except for the corruption that’s been allowed to run rampant. I’m pissed about it & I can’t understand why the rest of you aren’t. Ignorance & apathy is rampant around here, truthfully and cancer on society.
Now, where am I wrong?
So, simply explain and prove this: “a few people who need to be held accountable. Getty, Brown, Pelosi, Newsom have been running this state since before I was born & I’m old. In over 50 years nobody has held them accountable for the crimes against humanity happening around us.” Wow, what crimes dude … while there’s no mention of the corruption of Trump and his sycophants, eh? Explain that. Many of us are pissed off, and it seems ” Ignorance & apathy is rampant around here, truthfully and cancer on society” applies to Trump & Co. Sure, there’s some corrupt Dems and we’re also pissed off at the Dems who run this city (maybe you don’t live in San Diego). You have a lot of man-splaining to do.
Elon is far from the richest person in the world. Keep learning bud. You clearly don’t understand how we got here, aren’t interested in amicable solutions & want to argue. I seriously hope you find whatever nimby peace you’re looking for… Keep being part of the problem ?
Then does virtually every news story about Musk repeat the phrase, “the richest person in the world.” Since you refute that, it’s up to you to prove your assertion, not mine. Reading your multiple rants, it sounds like we agree on some things, but definitely not others. You’re calling Newsom and Pelosi “corrupt” simply echos Trump’s tropes — so yes, that’s partly where you’re wrong – and fuck you for calling on me to have “peace” when you clearly don’t mean it and can’t resist having the last word, and you call me argumentative.
United Nations agenda 2030. Most of our city officials and state officials are very much globalists and believe in 15 minutes cities and most every bullet point that is within agenda 2030. This is no laughing matter. Our so-called representatives do not represent us in the slightest. Extreme Urban density, limitations on individual ownership of vehicles and the massive push to public transit. The World economic forum global leadership program has infested Free Nations down to the local level.
This is where an UNINFORMED, and a rather ignorant neighbor has, in one failed swoop, stirred up a community I happen to care about very deeply, and especially for someone who always follows the rules. Design started on this project approx. 5 years ago and submitted for permitting approx. 4 years ago. A Coastal development permit (CDP) was filed for before the permit processing could begin. Contrary to the mis-information everyone has been told, Our CDP, Coastal Development Permit was filed and, as required, was posted on the fence in front of the property for Months noting of the new build, as required by, and for procuring the Coastal Development Permit. This was the required Notice we follow on all coastal properties. We do not have to notify a second time to demo the home. This home also has to go through thorough vetting through the Historical Dept. at the city – THIS IS NOT A HISTORICAL HOME AS DEEMED BY THE CITY. After 4 years in the city, we have a “Permit for the Project”, a “Coastal Development Permit”, a “Right Of Way” Permit”, AND A “DEMO PERMIT!” It concerns me deeply when someone 40′ away will tell lies to the masses, and they are believed, when we were not given the opportunity to present the actual truth and proof of the physical documentation. The project also has a 2 car garage and 2 off street parking stalls as required by the city. This is going to be a beautiful project and will enhance the values in the area.
This is not a Developer project, it is an individual that purchased the home 6 years ago and hired a long time local PL contractor to build this project.