Overview
About Sandcastle
Sandcastle sits on Avocado Avenue between the village grid and Newport Center, and the city registers it as Corona del Mar Sandcastle over 2.5 acres holding 45 addresses on 45 parcels. Avocado Avenue is the only street name on the record inside the boundary. The polygon fills 99.6 percent of its own convex hull, the tightest single block shape of the twenty-four boundaries in this district.
The city zones the whole 2.5 acres RM, multi-unit residential, and the certified Local Coastal Program gives it a density band of 10 to 19.9 dwellings per acre with a height limit written as 28 feet flat and 33 feet sloped. All of it sits inside the Coastal Zone and all of it is designated for short term lodging. The 8.56 acre Irvine Terrace Park lies 740 feet away and the 0.62 acre Old School Park 1,013 feet away. Abraham Lincoln Elementary serves the community and enrolled 336 students on the 2024-25 federal count. For the city's own administration the city places it in evacuation zone 43, park service area 10, census tract 627.01.
View available homes in SandcastleHistory
How Sandcastle was built
Sandcastle sits on Avocado Avenue on ground that came out of Irvine Terrace, the harbor facing community the Irvine Company opened in 1956. Before that it was ranch. Cattle roamed these hillsides and Japanese farmers dry farmed crops along the coastal terrace below, all of it part of the Irvine Ranch that grew out of the Rancho San Joaquin grant. Irvine Terrace was deliberately different from the 1904 village a few blocks south: wider streets, larger lots, and an outlook turned toward Newport Harbor rather than the open ocean.
The buildings here date to 1963, which makes Sandcastle a mid century complex rather than a product of the condominium boom. The condominium record over the block was not drawn until 1978, and that is the year the units were placed in condominium ownership, not the year anything was built.
By the Numbers
Sandcastle by the numbers
Lifestyle
The Sandcastle lifestyle
Schools
Schools serving Sandcastle
The Newport-Mesa Unified locator was queried at 6 real addresses inside this boundary and returned Abraham Lincoln Elementary at every one of them. That campus teaches kindergarten through sixth grade at 3101 Pacific View Drive and enrolled 336 students on the 2024-25 federal count. The secondary grades are taught at 2101 Eastbluff Drive, which the district names as both Corona del Mar Middle School and Corona del Mar High School and which the federal directory records as one campus of 2,106 students across grades 7 to 12.
7-12 · 2,106 students
K-6 · 336 students
FAQs
Common questions about Sandcastle
Which elementary school serves Sandcastle?
Abraham Lincoln Elementary, at all 6 addresses tested inside the boundary, then Corona del Mar Middle and Corona del Mar High for grades 7 to 12.
When was Sandcastle recorded?
Tract 10274 was recorded on December 1, 1978, surveyed by William J. Frost, over ground that had been part of Tract 2813 since 1957. The register draws the association as one lot polygon covering 2.5 acres. Closing the street rights of way between them gives a footprint of 2.5 acres, which is the shape drawn on the district map.
Can a home here be rented short term?
The city designates the whole 2.5 acres for short term lodging. The city permit register is the authority for any specific address.
What is the zoning?
RM, multi-unit residential, across the whole boundary, in a Local Coastal Program density band of 10 to 19.9 dwellings per acre.
Why does the county show no year built?
Title here is held in condominium form, so the county carries airspace parcels without construction dates. The 1978 recorded map is the dating evidence. The city bikeway layer runs 0.01 miles inside the footprint, on Kewamee Dr.