By Geoff Page
It appears the development vulture has landed in OB again, at 4620 Adair Street. A developer wants to erect four three-story buildings, with two dwelling units each, on that single family zoned lot. Eight dwelling units on one lot in a residential neighborhood.
Here is what is proposed:
Combination Building Permit for a proposed (4) (N) detached 3-story identical duplex buildings on a vacant lot. The work to include each building with (1) dwelling unit on the first floor and (1) dwelling unit on the 2nd and third floors. The Existing SDU and detached garage will be demolished under a separate permit. Historic: Ocean Beach Cottage Emerging.
Four three-story buildings. Each will have a first-floor dwelling unit and a two-story second dwelling unit on the second and third floors. Want to make a bet at how luxurious the two-story units will be? Eight dwelling units on a residential lot.
It appears the city approved the project without public input. The developer has already paid $12,227.20 in fees.
This one has a curious twist. The existing structure was just remodeled last year. A Pre-final inspection on the work took place August 28, 2024. The property sold June 20, 2024. Here is what was recently done:
PENINSULA, Combination permit for Addition and interor [sic] remodel of the (E)SDU.Scope to include:(N)Room addition on the first floor including N)bedroom, (N)bathroom, (N)kitchen, Interior remodel of the (E)SDU (N)bed&bathrooms raise up the ceiling, Conversion of the (E) detached garage to (N)Guest quarter, Construction ot 2(N) detached car garages.RS-1-7, Coastal N-APP-2, Transit Priority, Geo Haz 52.
It sounds confusing but it is clear that a lot of work took place. The 6,900/SF lot currently contains a house, three smaller structures, and two carport spaces on. It has all the markings of what we once would have called illegal housing.
According to the city permit records, all fees were paid. The only inspection not completed was Final Inspection.
Carola Clerici is listed as the applicant and Nathaniel Winnett is listed as the owner. Winnett is in real estate.
The new developer plans to demolish everything, even all that new work, in order to build its project. This is a stark indicator of how profitable one of these miserable projects can be. The recent substantial improvements by the previous owners amount to pocket change compared to what can be made from the site if this is allowed.
All the same major issues plague this project. Taxing infrastructure, traffic, parking, and out of character for the neighborhood.
Three units are proposed to be affordable. Those three will very probably be the small first-floor units. The four two-story units will not be affordable to most people.
There really needs to be strong regulation regarding what a developer can do with the units in a project that are not designated affordable.
If the only way a developer can build something like this is by using all the new housing twists and turns, then there should be a limit on how extravagantly a developer can build on top of small, one-bedroom affordable dwelling units.
There is a glimmer of hope that needs to be investigated. If The Rag readers recall, the 20-unit project proposed for 4705 Point Loma Avenue, the southeast corner of Ebers and Point Loma Ave., was defeated at the Planning Commission.
It was a matter of law that did it. The mayor’s Complete Communities plan expressly exempts historical districts. A citizen-lead effort showed that the property fell within the Ocean Beach Cottage Emerging Historical District or Ocean Beach Emerging Cottage Historical District. An argument ensued with the city saying words did not mean what they did. But, the project was denied.
This new monstrosity is also within those boundaries. Perhaps the same defense could be used on 4620 Adair. Bright minds are looking at that and into the approval process history.
Here is the good Fox5 report with Rag writer Geoff Page being interviewed — https://fox5sandiego.com/video/concerns-over-large-housing-development-in-ocean-beachpoint-loma-area/10914730/
Not to mention all the obvious negatives of this horrible project, the disruption to Warren-Walker directly behind this project will be huge, as well as those units will be looking directly into the school, which seems like not a smart idea, safety-wise.
Also, each building will be separated by only a 2 inch gap. What can we do to stop this from happening?
Our small organization, COASTAL CARETAKERS, together with a band of locals fought, and won battle at 4705 Point Loma Ave.. Our small team made a slideshow presentation, filed two large written appeals hired an attorney and attended the hearing in masse. We presented 12 possible legal appeals. Ocean Beach Emerging Cottage Historical District was the winning appeal and the council voted unanimously to support the appeal. However that battle may not help the project on Adair Street today. 4705 point Loma Avenue was built under the rules and laws and guidelines of Complete Communities which do not allow building in historic communities. The ADU laws to my knowledge do not exclude building in historic communities. While the new modified ADU laws may very well impact the project at 4620 Adair, those new modified laws are apparently not retroactive. This new project is in my block on ADAIR STREET and our already overcrowded streets will have to have more people more cars more traffic. Perhaps we should start parking our cars in our front lawns. Maybe we should put parking lots in our front lawns and charge however, I’m sure that’s not legal. Or is it?
Hi Geoff,
Thank you for your story on the 8-unit ADU project on Adair Street. However, I’m afraid you have conflated 2 different projects in your story. The Nate Winnet 2.5-unit project is across the street at 4625 Adair Street, and is in fact intact, with 2 tenants living there. The proposed 8-unit ADU project you were writing about is at 4620 Adair Street, next door to me. The current structure on that lot is a 1950’s 3-bed, 1-bath Palmer house, that has never been remodeled. The previous owners died last year, and a developer from La Jolla bought the property. His proposed project is currently going through the City’s ministerial permit process, which means no public notice or hearing. Meanwhile, the on-site house is being used as a short-term rental.
Thank you for that correction, your are right.
I got the information off the city’s DSD Permit look up site but after rechecking it, I see you are correct. I thought the address I looked at was one of the four on-site at 4620.
Ahhh, yes, that would cause a little confusion. Suddenly there are now 4 addresses at this location where there used to be one, 4620, like the rest of all the other houses in the area. Amazing how they can create 4 new addresses just like that.
Thank you for shedding light and reporting on yet another crappo project in our city.
Thanks for the story/information Geoff. How are they potentially getting around the 30′ coastal height limit?
No one has seen the design yet but they could do this and stay under the 30-foot limit.
Need more housing. Please build.
Every coast town in California has gone this route. OB is up next.
More housing, yes–by curtailing the short term rentals that have swallowed a vast portion of the area and squeezed out renters and would-be homeowners. The answer is not to squeeze more plywood human-hives onto every square inch of every yard.. which will ALSO become STRs, mark my word.
What can you cite to back up your claim that “Every coast town in California has gone this route?”
It nauseates me every time I see a perfectly good house from a time when homes were built to last with quality materials sent off to the landfill in order to be replaced with (inevitably) shoddy cash grabs by rapacious developers. It’s even worse when the house was just remodeled…what a sad waste, and what an f.u. to the environment, never mind the residents of that neighborhood.
I was corrected on the remodel information. It was actually a house across the street, not this one.