SANTA CRUZ — With coastal views and a spot on the bluff, the only home on the ocean side of West Cliff Drive, has sold for nearly $5.5 million, according to Coldwell Banker.

In a private transaction, the new owners made a full-price offer of $5.495 million to the home at 1307 W. Cliff Drive, meaning they offered to buy at the price the house was listed, according to Frank DeBernardo, CEO and broker of the real estate agency the DeBernardo Team, who made the sale. The property was listed May 28 and closed escrow July 5. This was the only home the buyers made an offer on, according to DeBernardo.

“It’s an iconic property,” DeBernardo said. “Santa Cruz should be proud. It’s a wonderful family taking care of the property.”

The previous owners, Shigefumi Honjo and his wife Amy Honjo, purchased the property for $3.99 million in 2014, as reported by the Sentinel. The home “got to be too much for them,” according to Deidre Hamilton, founder of Hamilton Land Planning, who served as Honjos’ land use consultant. The single-family residence was built in 1940 and has three bathrooms and four bedrooms, as well as a separate cottage. The nearly 3,000-square-foot property was once featured in the Clint Eastwood film “Sudden Impact.”

Under the ownership of the Honjos, the house was expected to undergo interior and exterior changes, including replacing single-pane windows, changing the color from pastel blue to dark brown, removing and a storage shed and adding a new deck.

The city of Santa Cruz’s Zoning Administrator approved a coastal permit and design permit for the property in 2016, but they were appealed by neighbors/residents because they believed a remodel/redevelopment of the cottage would change its design and style. The neighbors were also concerned about erosion caused by a broken drainage pipe and interference with West Cliff’s public access path. The California Coastal Commission also appealed because it felt the permits didn’t align with its definition of a remodel, Hamilton said.

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Big credit union plans new downtown San Jose branch The Coastal Commission approved a remodel permit and redevelopment permit in 2018. For the remodel of the cottage, about 50% of its structural elements can be replaced because those are the conditions of a remodel of a non-conforming structure, according to the Commission’s intent to issue a permit. Regardless if the new owners want to remodel and redevelop, invasive species and illegal riprap, or rock or other material used to protect the shoreline, needs to be removed, according to the Commission’s intent to issue a permit.

“I don’t know if they [the new owners] will choose to exercise these permits,” Hamilton said.

The property has been subject to various names through the years. The home was called the “Tide Cliff Studio” and the accompanying “Music Studio cottage,” according to research from historian and former city Architectural Heritage Commission member Ross Eric Gibson. Neighbors have also referred to the home as the “Doll House,” dubbed after a later owner’s doll making, he said.