Future building heights in Grover Beach will be shaped by local voters in November despite city staff warning the City Council that passing the ballot measure could put the city out of compliance with California housing laws.
“If HCD [California Department of Housing and Community Development] is telling our staff, ‘You’re going to be in violation,’ it’s pretty clear they’re going to put us in violation for this,” Grover Beach City Councilmember Clint Weirick said at the June 8 meeting. “I would want to have something actually in writing from them. … Basically, if this passes, what can we do as a council that gets us away from being decertified because right now it’s just verbal conversations.”
Debates about lowering the height of new structures in the city started last year. A citizens group called Save Grover Beach opposed a string of new developments on the western end of downtown Grover Beach, such as the Bella Vista Villas from Empire Development and Construction and Coastal Community Builders projects called Trinity and Solstice.
Not wanting to wait any longer, the group began gathering signatures for a citizen initiative to lower building heights from up to 55 feet to 40 in commercial zones and from up to 40 feet to 33 in industrial zones. The proposed measure also requires mixed-use projects to devote 33 percent of the development to commercial uses.
By May, the City Council accepted the petition and certified the 1,249 signatures for the initiative. At the June 8 meeting, council members unanimously voted to submit the proposed ordinance to voters in November’s general election.
‘This initiative raises important questions about the future character of the community, economic development, housing production, and the balance between residential and commercial uses.’
—Jeff Chambers, South County Chamber of Commerce president
But city staff alerted the council that a successful ballot measure could mean reduced residential housing capacity, which would place Grover Beach in conflict with the Housing Crisis Act, Housing Accountability Act, Density Bonus Law, and Housing Element Law.
“Collectively, these statutes create a legal framework in which approval of qualified housing development projects is required unless the city can make specific adverse findings supported by … evidence in the record that there would be a public health or safety issue,” Grover Beach Community Development Director Megan Martin told councilmembers.
Staff presented an example of a typical 10,000 square-foot mixed-use site with commercial space on the ground floor and nine residential units. Under the proposed citizen initiative, housing capacity at that site would drop to five units. They estimated that existing zoning across commercial mixed-use areas could support up to 1,240 housing units, but the initiative could eliminate 544 potential units.
According to staff, the city might need to rezone almost 140 acres of low-density residential land to replace those units and remain compliant with state law. The process would require an environmental impact report with a price tag between $500,000 and $1 million.
In April, proponents of the initiative like Kelvin Coveduck asked the City Council to pump the brakes on new development to preserve the beach town character of Grover Beach, especially since the city almost hit its state-issued Regional Housing Needs Allocation [RHNA] numbers for the current cycle, which ends in 2028.
Coveduck and several other residents urged council members at the June meeting to let the proposed initiative go to the ballot.
“This initiative raises important questions about the future character of the community, economic development, housing production, and the balance between residential and commercial uses,” South County Chambers of Commerce President Jeff Chambers said. “By placing this before all the voters of Grover Beach, the city provides an opportunity for all the residents, business owners, property owners, and stakeholders to fully engage in the conversation and determine the direction that they believe is best for Grover Beach.”
The City Council agreed that giving the public a chance to voice their opinion through voting is vital. At the suggestion of Mayor Kassi Dee, the council also decided to appoint an ad-hoc committee to work with the citizens group ahead of the general election.
“I personally want to see this go to ballot with the caveat that I would like to entertain an ad-hoc committee to speak with proponents regarding potential impacts and alternatives,” Dee said. “This is very important in our democratic process.” ∆
This article appears in Winning Images 2026.
