SLO County beach city could restrict tall buildings — or it could go to ballot

A citizen-led effort to cap building heights along Grover Beach’s West Grand Avenue corridor has qualified for the November ballot, setting up a June 8 City Council decision.

The measure follows years of debate over high-density, mixed-use development in downtown Grover Beach that some residents say is reshaping the city’s small-town coastal character.

Here are the key takeaways heading into the Council’s decision Monday:

• The Grover Beach City Council will decide Monday whether to adopt the building height initiative as an ordinance or place it on the Nov. 3 ballot, after the City Clerk certified 1,102 valid signatures on April 30.
• The measure would cap industrial-zoned buildings at 33 feet and mixed-use buildings at 40 feet, effectively limiting structures to three stories rather than the current 55 feet allowed under city rules.
• Residents Kelvin Coveduck and Mike Wilson launched the petition in February, citing concern over the destruction of Grover Beach’s small-town coastal character and views of the Pacific Ocean and Oceano Dunes. The measure also requires that at least 33% of mixed-use buildings be dedicated to commercial space.
• With the petition certified, the City Council will have the option to either approve its contents as an ordinance or put the issue to the voters in November.
• The Housing Crisis Act and Housing Accountability Act limit the city’s ability to deny or reduce housing density, and city attorney Jennifer Thompson said it remains “an undecided area of the law” whether ballot-driven height restrictions would interfere with state housing directives.
• Grover Beach must approve 369 new housing units in the 2020-28 Regional Housing Needs Assessment cycle or risk losing local zoning control to the state, and the city has already permitted 98% of that requirement ahead of the 2028 deadline.
• Last year, Coastal Community Builders CEO Cam Boyd called Grover Beach “a town whose time has come,” citing 2022 development code changes that increased building height limits, and said the ability to build higher-density housing was the catalyst for his company’s investment in the West Grand Avenue corridor.

The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.