Unique cottage on coastal SLO County bluff can be torn down, supervisors say
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- County supervisors denied an appeal blocking demolition of a historic Cambria home.
- New construction must preserve one cypress tree and cancel vacation rental use.
- Opposition cites environmental impact and loss of iconic coastal architecture.
The owners of a distinctive oceanfront Cambria home came one step closer Tuesday to being able to tear down the tiny 1960s-era structure and replace it with a new home that’s more than twice as big.
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 at that day’s hearing, with the majority denying an appeal challenging that right. Supervisor Dawn Ortiz-Legg voted to support it.
However, the North Coast Advisory Council can take its appeal one step further up the regulatory chain to the California Coastal Commission.
“The NCAC has not yet made a formal decision,” council Chair Christina Galloway told The Tribune Thursday. “As our role is to represent the public, it seems appropriate to seek community input before proceeding.”
She also indicated that the property owners have threatened to sue the council and the project’s appellants, and asked if the home was “deemed structurally unsound” — as indicated in the application — why it continues to operate as a licensed vacation rental.
The primary emphasis of the appeal was to minimize environmental impacts, protect the property’s scenic views for the public and help to preserve the community’s character, according to Jeff Kwasny, who chairs the council’s land-use committee.
He said the county’s interpretation of protections for the North Coast shoreline area, as outlined in the item’s agenda listing, “just considered the sand and rock and not the bluff.”
“We have policy … that says otherwise, and includes the bluff and visual resources,” he said.
As part of the supervisor’s denial of the appeal, “the project conditions were revised to preserve one of the cypress trees and cancel the vacation-rental zoning clearance,” Supervisor Bruce Gibson said of Tuesday’s hearing.
The use of the house at 2675 Sherwood Drive as a vacation rental was classified as “legal non-conforming because there is another vacation rental across the street,” Gibson said.
“Land use ordinance requires, if the use is expanded (by removal of old house and building of a bigger one), then the property has to be brought to ‘conforming,’” he said.
That means the new home couldn’t be used as a vacation rental.
Owners had several reasons to new house on Cambria parcel
Property owners Peter and Beata Przybyslawski of Lake Tahoe wanted to use the new, 2,419-square-foot, three-bedroom, three-bath residence they’re planning on the site as a vacation rental, just as they had the existing one-bedroom, one-bath one.
Having a vacation rental there wasn’t their only reason for wanting to put a different house on their property, according to Bill Isaman of San Luis Obispo, their architect and spokesman.
“They love the property and want to live there,” he said.
But doing so now would be physically difficult for one of the owners.
“Peter is 6-feet-10-inches tall, so it’s a difficult structure for him,” Isaman told The Tribune on Wednesday.
Additionally, one section of the present house is 3 feet from the bluff, the architect said, something that’s absolutely not allowed for any new construction.
“It’s going to go into the water,” he said.
Isaman called the supervisors’ decision “a bittersweet victory, because the advisory council will probably take it to Coastal Commission.”
“Each corner, it seems we have another hurdle to climb,” Isaman said. “At this point, I’ll advise them to sit back, and we’ll see if we move forward or not.”
Cambria cottage is unique, historic property
Online response to news of the Przybyslawski plan was swift and predominantly unhappy about the potential demolition of the structure.
What’s been on the property for six decades is a distinctive, 1,170-square-foot, oceanfront home designed in 1965 by Central Coast legend Warren Leopold to maximize its unblockable coastal views.
Leopold designed and built other homes in Cambria, including one nicknamed “The Crazy House.” He did the same in other communities including San Luis Obispo.
His unusual, angular building at 84 Santa Rosa St. near Adventist Sierra Vista Hospital, built in 1968, is a medical office.
The Sherwood Drive house is flanked by four large, mature Monterey Cypress trees, through which there’s a clear view of the sea for people walking by on the street.
A description on SLOCal.com said the building was “the most unique and cozy cottage you’ll ever vacation at.”
The one-tenth-acre property is less than 200 feet from the southern entrance to the open spaces of the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve.
The iconic structure is in a prime residential area, where many smaller homes already have been torn down and replaced by much larger ones.
This story was originally published June 5, 2025 at 12:24 PM.
