A failed footing, a cracked stem wall, a sill that has given up after decades of sea air: in the City of Del Mar, most of the structural work we discuss with owners happens below the floor line or behind finished walls. When it is done well, the street sees nothing. That fact sits at the center of how the City’s Design Review Ordinance treats repair.
This entry walks through the question owners raise most often at the start: will this need Design Review? The short answer is that like-for-like repair usually does not, and that the details of a project decide whether it stays that way. The longer answer follows. Our design review and coastal permits page describes the full sequence of approvals; this piece stays with the repair question.
The ordinance’s starting point
The Design Review Ordinance is Chapter 23.08 of the Del Mar Municipal Code. It applies broadly to exterior construction and modification. Its exemption for repair is written plainly: no Design Review Permit is required for the repair, restoration or reconstruction of a structure where the work maintains the outer dimensions and surface relationships of the existing structure. The City’s own handouts call this “like-for-like.”
Two qualifiers follow in the code.
First, in certain zones and overlays, including the commercial and visitor zones, the Bluff, Slope and Canyon overlay, Open Space, and the Historical Preservation overlay, the exemption holds only if the work does not modify exterior design features or change exterior materials or colors. The code gives windows, doors, overhangs and chimneys as examples of design features.
Second, adding doors, windows or other transparent surfaces where none exist requires a permit, while replacing existing ones does not, within limits on size and position.
The City’s handouts add one more sentence that matters a great deal: Planning Department staff is ultimately responsible for determining whether a project is exempt. Owners and contractors propose; the City decides.
What usually stays exempt
Work that tends to remain within the like-for-like exemption, subject to the City’s determination:
- Replacing or strengthening a footing beneath an existing wall
- Underpinning that leaves the building’s outline and grade unchanged
- Repairing or replacing deteriorated sills, posts and beams in a crawl space
- Seismic anchorage and bracing hidden within the foundation and cripple walls
- Patching or resurfacing spalled concrete to its existing profile
- Reconstructing a damaged section of wall in its existing location and finish
What these share is that, once finished, the exterior reads the same. See our foundation repair page for the methods themselves.
Where repair tips into Administrative Design Review
The City offers a streamlined process, Administrative Design Review, for projects that are minor but not exempt. According to the City’s ADR guide, the Planning Director decides these, staff mails notice to property owners within 300 feet, and if a timely written objection is filed during the 10-day notice period, the project moves to the next available Design Review Board agenda for a public hearing.
Several items on the City’s list of typical ADR projects appear in structural conversations:
- Retaining walls not exceeding 4 feet in height, with a Land Conservation Permit possibly required for grading
- Fences and walls not exceeding 6 feet
- Shifting an exterior building wall up to 3 feet laterally, with no increase in height
- An increase in roof height of no more than 8 inches
- New, relocated or enlarged windows and doors
The last two deserve attention. Leveling a settled house, or rebuilding a raised floor system, can raise finished floor and roof heights slightly. If a repair plan changes heights at all, that is worth raising with Planning before design is final. A wall rebuilt a few feet from its old position for structural reasons is a similar case.
Where a full Board hearing enters
Projects that are neither exempt nor minor go to the Design Review Board at a noticed public hearing. The City’s resident handbook describes the noticing: mailed notice to owners within 300 feet at least 10 days ahead, a “Development Permit Pending” sign on the property, a posting at City Hall, and a newspaper notice. Some projects require story poles, with heights certified before the hearing.
For structural work, a Board hearing usually signals that the repair has become something more, such as a rebuilt retaining system that changes grade, an addition proposed alongside the repair, or a replacement that changes the building’s form. Owners who prefer discretion often find it useful to separate pure repair from discretionary improvements, so that each follows its own path.
Building permits are a separate question
Design Review answers whether a project’s appearance needs approval. It does not answer whether the work needs a building permit. The City’s ADR guide notes that Del Mar requires building permits for many components other jurisdictions may not, including all new fences, retaining walls and freestanding masonry walls. Structural repair almost always involves a building permit, and engineered repairs require plans. Our retaining wall repair page covers that side.
The coastal layer
Del Mar’s Local Coastal Program Land Use Plan was certified by the Coastal Commission in 1993. Under the certified program, the City processes coastal development permits for most projects, while the Commission keeps authority over “original jurisdiction” areas, generally lands subject to tidal action or public trust claims. Coastal review asks a different question than Design Review: whether the work is “development” in the coastal sense, and whether a repair exemption applies.
State regulations at 14 CCR 13252 identify repair methods that require a coastal development permit even when the underlying work is repair. For seawalls and bluff retaining walls, these include substantial alteration of the structure’s foundation, placing rock or other materials on the beach, and mechanized equipment on sand or bluff areas or within 20 feet of coastal waters. For other structures within 50 feet of a bluff edge, work involving mechanized equipment or placing solid materials can trigger a permit as well.
For owners on the bluffs or near the beach, the method of a repair can therefore matter as much as its purpose. We note those triggers in our scope and leave the determination to the City and, where applicable, the Commission. We do not forecast review outcomes or durations. See bluff and hillside homes for the physical context.
A sequence that tends to keep repair quiet
- Document existing conditions carefully, including heights and exterior finishes.
- Define the repair so the exterior is restored to its existing dimensions, materials and colors where possible.
- Ask Planning early whether the work is exempt, and note any height or position changes.
- Identify building permit requirements separately.
- Flag coastal triggers in the repair method, especially near bluffs and the beach.
- Keep discretionary improvements on their own track.
Where structural design is needed, we coordinate with licensed engineers as needed, and with the owner’s architect when one is involved.
Before the first conversation with Planning
A clear description of what will change, and what will not, is the most useful document an owner can bring. If you would like help preparing one for a home anywhere in the City of Del Mar, request a Free Quote. For owners also weighing exterior concrete upkeep near the water, our journal entry on beachfront concrete maintenance is a companion read.