What Was It, What Is It, and What Will It Be?
By Coastal Caretakers
Today, we will start with what it IS, complicated as it is, beginning with a cement block building, a new owner, and a new future, defined by the City of San Diego in the words of Accela, the city’s new permitting system and the reminder of an old joke ending in, “are you going to believe your lying eyes, or what I tell you?”
The previous owner, Sunset Cliffs Creative House, LLC morphed a $2.2 million investment into a $2.8 million sale to Yoffee, LLC, which has a San Diego mailing address on Casitas St, a San Diego property owned by Yoth, LLC, and a business named Daylight Coffee, LLC, — all Wyoming LLCs. This is a situation that gets us very close to where we are today.
Yoffee LLC is the owner of the property, and the address of Yoth LLC owns the mailing address for Yoffee, LLC, a business to be occupied, according to its application in 2025 for a liquor license for Daylight Coffee, LLC, also at the Yoth, LLC-owned address.
And now we enter the twilight zone of Accela, a new world in Mission Valley without paper but with three windows to pay fees. Any member of the public can right now get an Accela account, log in, and type in (with some difficulty) “1404 Sunset Cliffs Blvd” as the address. You will see what it says. (And if you are wondering, you can see the same thing using the Rite-Aid address.) The paper world has been forgotten, but the original plans are still there.
Editordude: Accela In San Diego is the cloud-based software platform utilized by both the City of San Diego and the County of San Diego to manage government services, building permits, and public works projects. The platform features an online portal—known as Accela Citizen Access (ACA)—that allows residents, contractors, and business owners to bypass in-person visits to government offices
There are two basic types of modern changes supporting housing; ADU’s, which leave all the old Municipal code the same in the residential zones, but provide exemptions and exceptions to the exemptions, with (I think) up to 19 unexpected housing units in the backyard next door — which was the subject of last year’s ADU reforms. Complete Communities is the same for commercial zones, which now have site development permit exemptions that focus on residential housing. The grey areas, churches and other non-profits are also greatly desirable to developers – those parking lots again, and their charitable intentions work perfectly.
The website is a hard-to-follow movie plot, but if you establish an Accela link yourself, and log in, you can work your way to “1404 Sunset Cliffs Bl, 59, San Diego San Diego County CA 92107, 1404 Sunset Cliffs Bl”. It should open the door to the facts.
If you think this is easy, think again.
Going to Accela, if you look for the address, Accela tells us it has a Scope of Work that says, “Scope of Work: CHANGE OF USE TENANT IMPROVEMENT WITH LESS THAN 10% FLOOR AREA/ HEIGHT ADDITION AND LESS THAN 50% DEMOLITION OF EXISTING EXTERIOR/PERIMETER WALLS.”
However, if you search under Parcel Number, you get a whole different set.
This time you get 8 different projects, four permits dated 10/09/25 and 10/10/25 for Building Permit, Electrical Permit, Mechanical Permit, and Building Construction, ending with a traffic control permit on 04/27/2026. There are a few others, Preliminary review (complete) , Zoning Use Certificate (withdrawn), and Others (closed). Only one has an interesting category: INSPECTING. PRJ-113586 with a scope of work “Change of use Tenant Improvement with less than 10% floor area/height addition and less than 50% demolition of existing exterior perimeter walls.” So this is a match for at least one thing you have seen so far.
Is this what has been going on with the last month of full-time construction at the site? This is the permit that is said to have been issued:
Record PMT-3380242, but now it has a different scope.
Building Permit Record Status: Issued: OCEAN BEACH: Building, Electrical, and Mechanical permits for proposed change of use tenant improvement from mechanic shop to retail use. Work includes new office/storage area, retail displays, lighting, HVAC system, new windows and doors, parking resurfacing and striping, and ADA access upgrades. CC-4-2, SCOZ, Historical District Ocean Beach Cottage Emerging.”
This is what was issued and this is what is stated: “Issued: 02/05/2026 Inspected: 05/30/2026.’
The reality was reflected in a Code Compliance Complaint. A construction company has arrived, removed the south wall with the mural that defined Trinidad Motors, and delivered a stack of steel beams that rose as high as the garage door opening. A construction fence surrounds the site, but it became clear that a sort of toy structure WAS being built inside it. Most metal, old and new was painted along the way. The more cracked cement block corner was repainted to match the original, and it would be hard to distinguish the old from the new. No matter what the project is or was, the applicant has built a frame within the cement blocks with steel beams, and now, perhaps, it is sufficient to build a rooftop bar.
Moving to the east, the same thing occurred, with wood framing with entries large enough for an indoor food truck, a license previously held there. After neighborhood opposition to their liquor license, their current structural approach appears to provide more rooftop structural support, while opening as a cafe/ Bistro/ Coffee Shop. They have not applied to the Health Department, but the construction appears to support a plan to use a Mobile Truck permit for food service inside the building, with its continued permitted use as a car repair shop, all well within the realm of possibility.
The Code Compliance complaint is on the Accela books, and you can clearly see it in Accela marked “New.” However, it is still being assigned to an inspector. The project may now have this as its accurate definition:
“Tenant Improvement to convert existing Mechanic Shop into a Retail space.”
This project is current, except that this permit has not been issued. The work being done exceeds what is implied for structural reinforcements, using metal and wood beams. This complaint contains (with more details):
“The situation with the current building appears to be ongoing structural construction without a building permit including structural details. The building was built in 1953, and it has relatively new owners. They previously applied for a liquor license for a Coffee House with a rooftop bar and live music until 2:00 am. After neighborhood opposition, their current structural approach appears to provide more rooftop structural support, while opening as a cafe/Bistro/Coffee Shop. They have not applied to the Health Department, but the construction appears to support a plan for a Mobile Truck permit for food service inside the building, with its still-permitted use as a car repair shop, which is well within the realm of possibility. … please inspect it as soon as possible; it will all be covered with already delivered plywood or drywall. Pictures Attached.”
“Has a compliance investigator been assigned to this case yet? 1404 Sunset Cliffs Blvd, Case# CE-0541333. They have completely reframed a new building inside the existing 1953 structure. … Once the drywall is installed, it will be like it never happened. The plans for the former cement-block building are on file on Microfilm with DSD records.”
A follow-up to the complaint stated, “The only permits recently on file with DSD records are electrical and plumbing. They say ‘for Conditional Use, ‘ but there are no Conditional Use permit requests filed. The prior Conditional Use Permit waiver was nullified when the Liquor license was withdrawn. Their plan is rumored to be to place a food truck inside the building, thereby avoiding the need for a health department permit. There are numerous floating Code Compliance issues from the prior food truck at that location.”
Their initial application, now withdrawn, by the new property owner was for an Alcoholic Beverage license with the State of California. This resulted in a posting stating “Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, State of California, Notice of Intention to Engage in the sale of Alcoholic Beverages, to the Resident or Owner of Real Property within a 500’ Radius, ABC 207-E, March 5, 2025. A letter to nearby residents (Feb. 21, 2025) stated in part: “An application has been made for a license to sell alcoholic beverages near you. This is a specialty Bistro, with Entertainment of recorded music, live entertainment (band and or DJ), Dancing 7:00 AM TO 11 pm.” This was accompanied by plans for a rooftop bar.
The pictures tell the story, but what is the expectation? Why would a young couple who had just sold a business they formed themselves, invest in an obviously potentially lucrative location, only to have no visible expectations to make a profit? Why are there so many floating requirements? The increased power to 220V to support a food truck?
The people of Ocean Beach have been pretty much protected from the recent huge developments we see everywhere else in the city when we leave here. It takes a very expensive lawsuit, and other communities are collecting donations to do that.
The City recently voted to remove the Ocean Beach Historical District from protection, and the Coastal Commission will hear a one-year extension before the change to the Municipal Code becomes effective; the hearing is on July 9. Will developers wait a year to take action? Their first responsibility is to their investors. It is really too complicated if you would rather just be surfing. What is actually going on? You now know what we know.
And while we were looking at Accela, let’s have a look at the old Rite-Aide. At 4840 Niagara Ave, we see Scope of work: “Interior upfit remodel to a prototypical Walmart retail store.” (PRJ-1150838, 1/21/2026). Our first paragraph is still true.
Awhile back the future use of this auto repair building became such an issue that the purchasers of the building (three people in a joint venture, I believe) posted a long message attempting to calm concerns. Maybe they should speak up now, as I drove by the place recently and got the impression that plans had not worked out after looking at the condition of the site. Perhaps these purchasers can sort out what’s going on, as this was (to me) a confusing article but did raise concerns. I’m glad it got posted.
/s/ Chris Kennedy
Confusion? Absolutely! Keeping the public confused is a strategy for control. Our state and city government is changing the laws and history. People like Jenn Campbell, who announced at a public meeting that Ocean Beach is NOT a historical district, are agenda driven. Of course, Ms Campbell announces this when the public has no chance to rebut. She and her peers, and their staff, have literally rewritten laws to conform to their belief–that high density housing is the answer to homelessness and affordable housing. If the beginning thesis is incorrect then what results is a house of cards, (ADUs and Complete Communities). Most of the confusion that you read in this article comes from the Masters of deceit and the creators of smoke and mirrors. The confusion, that I believe is intentional, distracts us from the real destruction of neighborhoods. Single family communities are being targeted through aggressive zoning changes, parking requirement downgrading, and waiving of Coastal and Environmental laws. The voices of the citizens are being silenced by expensive appeal fees, rendering planning boards powerless, downgrading parking regulations and ignoring traffic and other infrastructure upgrades. Why would we be confused? Reread the article. Is someone hoping this is all just too confusing, just too much?! Are they laughing at the confusion, and proud of demonizing people who don’t agree with them? Do we just give up? Someone out there is hoping that we do!