Oceanside Envisions Wave of Beach Development : Coastal Commission: City thinks time is ripe to ask state to lift ban on giving South Strand a face lift because chronic beach erosion is under control.

With renewed visions of Oceanside becoming a classy seaside community, city officials acted Wednesday to lift a decade-old state ban on developing the deteriorating beachfront area called the South Strand.

If the state Coastal Commission goes along, city officials expect a real estate boom to transform the largely neglected area of aging beach rentals and small homes into an attractive strip of pricey condos and other housing.

Redevelopment Director Patricia Hightman said, “Most of the coastal beachfront in California has been developed. This is one of the last areas that’s literally on the sand.”

Many property owners in the 6.3-acre area, equal in length to six typical city blocks, are relieved that, for the first time since the late 1970s, they soon might be able to sell or rehabilitate their holdings.

“It’s been a really long struggle,” said Joyce Larson, who, with her husband, Don, has owned five units on two adjoining lots for 16 years. They’ve been waiting to sell so they could retire, but there have been no buyers because of the restrictions.

The Coastal Commission imposed the moratorium, believing the city’s chronic beach erosion problem--tidal action washing away the sand--would pose a danger to any beachfront development.

So, while the North Strand, where there’s been no building ban, has recovered from its blight and now offers attractive $400,000 condos and other improvements, the South Strand has remained stagnant.

Many dwellings, especially some vacation rentals built in the ‘40s and ‘50s, haven’t been repaired or painted in years.

The South Strand “is in a state of limbo, it’s almost in a time warp,” said Dan Eisendrath, who is a member of the city’s Redevelopment Advisory Committee, a local real estate agent and a former resident of the South Strand.

But, since the development moratorium went into effect, the Army Corps of Engineers began a $12-million project in mid-1989 that is restoring sand to the beaches by dredging it from Oceanside Harbor and distributing it along the coast by pipeline.

Convinced that the erosion threat is over, the City Council on Wednesday gave final approval, in a 3-0 vote, to zoning changes at the South Strand and approved a resolution seeking to have the Coastal Commission remove its building ban.

The city is eager for the Coastal Commission to lift the moratorium at its September meeting. Hightman said, “We will be hand-delivering the entire submittal to the commission by Friday.”

Although Oceanside has growth restrictions, and a slow-growth majority sits on the council, city officials aren’t reluctant about redeveloping the South Strand.

“It’s always been the thought that, because of our beach, Oceanside should become a tourist mecca,” said Councilwoman Nancy York, part of the slow-growth political bloc.

“We’re looking at our downtown and beach not so much from a slow-growth perspective because it’s already developed,” York said.

If anything, officials believe that remaking the South Strand, situated west of Pacific Street, north of Wisconsin Street and south of Tyson Street, will play an important role in restoring the downtown’s economic health.

Downtown doesn’t have enough customers because of its image as a hangout for Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton and because a large shopping mall east of Oceanside has siphoned off consumers.

Hightman is convinced that making the South Strand an upscale residential area will provide more shoppers for existing businesses and retail that would be created by a much-touted $325-million redevelopment project, the Pier Plaza.

Situated on 10 empty blocks in the center of downtown and near the South Strand, the project would offer 64,000 square feet of shops, 15,000 square feet of restaurants, a hotel and other uses.

An agreement between the developer and the city to build Pier Plaza, the most important project in city redevelopment history, was expected to be signed last September. There have been delays, and now Hightman doesn’t expect an agreement until perhaps this September.

As for the South Strand, city officials are determined that it stay mainly residential, because allowing businesses along the beach would compete with the downtown and pose problems of finding parking and vehicle access.

However, keeping the area residential has its own challenges.

Although it is predicted that the South Strand will become more expensive and upscale, the city must keep a balance of housing for lower-income residents who live there now.

“If you tear down existing affordable housing, we’re obligated to replace it under state law,” Hightman said.

Still, she thinks that, if the Coastal Commission’s ban is removed, there’s enough pent-up developer interest in the beachfront property to stir investment and improvement.

“I have no doubt over the next few years the face of South Strand will change dramatically,” she said. “You’ll see a transition, I think you’ll see everything down there replaced or mega-remodeled.”

Eisendrath said property owners who experienced “extreme hardships” during the moratorium are relieved that the end may be near.

“Everybody has had their hands tied, the marketability has been affected, it’s cut property values,” he said, adding that elderly property owners have had the hardest problem because they’ve long been unable to sell out and retire because of the Coastal Commission’s restriction.

Larson said that, if the building moratorium goes, “we want to sell. We’re too old to fight to develop” their two parcels, he said. The couple plan to live elsewhere in Oceanside.

So far, the Coastal Commission has given no clue what decision it might make on Oceanside’s request.

Bill Ponder, a staff analyst who will review the matter and make recommendations to the commission, said the key consideration is whether the city has solved its beach erosion problem.

“They just have to prove they can get sand on that portion of the beach and the erosion problem is under control,” he said.