Despite "regret and remorse" and the protests of neighbors, planning commissioners on Monday allowed a Stinson Beach homeowner to rebuild a beachfront house destroyed by storm waves in 1983.
Dr. Leland Kugelgen of Piedmont had asked commissioners to approve his plans to rebuild a vacation rental at the beach end of Calle del Onda.
However, the storms of 1982 and 1983 prompted the Federal Emergency Management Agency to require property owners in flood zones to build houses on tall concrete pilings.
Squeezed into a 12-foot vertical construction area by FEMA's regulations and the county's 25-foot height limit, Kugelgen asked county planners to grant him a variance to erect a slightly taller house.
They argued vigorously that nobody should be allowed to build a house directly on a sandy beach.
Of all the houses built along the three-mile-long beach, said neighbor Mike Lemont, only 10 are located on the ocean side of the sand dunes. "These 10 houses were mistakes," he said. "We know that now.
"Whether this house belongs to the Kugelgens or the president of the United States, houses should not be allowed to be built on the beach."
Kugelgen told planning commissioners that he is entitled by law to rebuild a house destroyed by a natural disaster.
"In a perfect world, there would be no house on this lot," said Commissioner Morrow Cater. "In a perfect world, there would be no house built on any beachfront lot."
Commissioner Arlene Evans told the disgruntled neighbors they should have pooled their resources and bought the property.
Added Commissioner Ross Herbertson, noting resident Jim Zell's assertion that Kugelgen's parcel is under water in winter months, "There should not be a legal lot of record on the ocean floor, even if it's [sometimes] on a dry part of the ocean."
However, the commissioners agreed that they had no legal support for denying the building permit.
"With remorse and regret," Herbertson joined the other four commissioners present in voting in Kugelgen's favor. As a condition of the permit, Kugelgen cannot do any construction work on weekends or before 8 a.m. on weekdays.