At the June 1 meeting of the Ocean Beach Planning Board (OBPB), we voted to send a letter to Mayor Jerry Sander’s office in response to the City’s Development Services Department’s (DSD) rezoning through variances.   These variances allow property owners to exceed their floor-area ratio (FAR) in Ocean Beach, thereby increasing size and scale of the homes.  Three property owners in the community were granted variances that would allow that increase, and this a major concern of the board.  The letter was also sent to DSD, the City Attorney’s Office and members of the City Council’s Land Use and Housing (LUH) Committee. Our councilmember, Kevin Faulconer, sits on that committee.    Ocean Beach is very unique in the fact that we are zoned RM-2-4. Sixty-four percent of city parcels with this zoning are located within Ocean Beach. The entire RM-2-4 zone includes all the residential zones west of Sunset Cliffs.  This means for every 100 square feet of land, 70 square feet is buildable space, and of that space, 25 percent must be dedicated to enclosed parking. This gives the property owner 52.5 square feet of livable space per 100 square feet of land they want to build on.  Recently, DSD has been allowing variances to property owners that would allow them to not include the 25 percent dedicated toward parking, thus increasing the size and scale of the homes on these properties to a scale larger than the zone allows. Our letter from the board to city officials stated that: “City staff has supported variances from the municipal code ‘based on the substandard lot size (2,500 square feet) combined with the limitation of F.A.R. in the RM-2-4 Zone.’ The city’s staff has failed to correctly identify the hardship condition necessary to grant the variances and we believe the variances are improper for the parcels in question and others in the same general area.” It should be noted that all the lots in question are, and have been, perfectly buildable without variances for more than 30 years since our Precise Plan identified the community’s desire to maintain low- and small-scale homes and structures in Ocean Beach and set the FAR level to specifically accomplish that design intent.   This is where the board is at odds with city staff.  Our concerns were stated in the Aug. 11 Peninsula Beacon article titled “Faulconer, OB?planners at odds on beachfront variances, demolitions.”  It should be noted that Faulconer is the only city official who has responded to the letter.  In addition. Matt Awbrey, Faulconer’s communications director, has assured me that Faulconer is aware of the issue and of OBPB’s concern. Faulconer is also consulting with the City Attorney’s Office to see if there is anything DSD has done illegally when it comes to the issue of rezoning through variances.  We would prefer that the city docket this for a City Council hearing (Process 5) in order to determine the community’s will to either support or change the municipal code in a proper and democratic fashion. The projects on West Point Loma Boulevard are not the only location where this FAR variance was allowed by the city, and therefore this is not an issue limited solely to one specific area of the community.  In addition to voting against these projects, the OBPB also voted unanimously against removing the 25 percent FAR requirement from the RM 2-4 zone when the city requested that the OBPB discuss the issue in August 2010.  The city has requested we either increase the allowed FAR or remove the parking requirement a number of other times over the course of history — all requests were rejected by the board.   Rezoning through variances is a significant concern for members on the board as it is counterproductive to the public process and also dishonors the purpose for maintaining the community planning group system in the first place.  Under California state law, variances should be granted only under unique hardships. We don’t agree this hardship exists. I personally welcome Kevin Faulconer, along with other councilmembers who sit on the LUH board, to look into this matter and help us ensure future development in our community remains consistent with the existing small scale character we have identified as our priority planning goal.  — Giovanni Ingolia serves as chairman of the Ocean Beach Planning Board.