Encinitas planning commissioners direct staff to draft denial for Newman setback variance, allow redesign

The Encinitas Planning Commission on a 3–2 vote directed staff to prepare a resolution denying a variance request that would reduce the required 25-foot front-yard setback to 14 feet 1 inch for the Newman residence (Case Multi0071762024), while specifically allowing the applicant to work with staff on a redesign and resubmit.

Senior Planner Christina Bustamante told the commission the application would reduce the required front-yard setback to 14 feet 1 inch to the building wall (13 feet 11 inches to the roof eave) and apply to portions of a basement garage, an office and bedroom on the first floor, and a small portion of a second-floor deck. She said the lot is substandard — about 39.58 feet wide in an R-8 zone — and that the California Coastal Commission’s de novo review imposed bluff-edge setbacks of 62 feet for the house and 90 feet for the basement, which shifted the approved house plan roughly 11 feet landward and produced the front-yard encroachment staff described tonight.

Applican…