Proposed zoning changes meant to stop Oceanside's South Pacific Street from turning into a canyon of tall buildings have been put on hold while officials study what one planning commissioner called "unintended consequences."

The consequences are that the proposal would prevent some property owners along the west side of South Pacific Street from building anything that is more than one story tall from street level, said Commission chairman Bob Neal and commissioner Jay Scrivener.

South Pacific Street has steep slopes on each side of the street, with the east side higher than the west side in most stretches.

"The whole thing that was bothering people about Pacific Street is the canyonization, the 35-foot parapets right off the street," Scrivener said Friday. "People didn't want to be walking in a shaded canyon when they thought they were at the beach."

Scrivener said he's looking for a compromise, possibly by using tiered construction to avoid massive looking buildings with walls that rise straight up two stories from the edge of the street.

"I don't think anybody's idea was new construction where all you'd see is a single-story garage on the street with the house behind it," Scrivener said.

Commissioner Claudia Troisi said she's concerned that houses that are two stories on Pacific Street can be four stories on the ocean side of property with two stories on the street side and two lower stories that can be seen from the beach.

Planning commissioners struggled with the proposed zoning changes this week, but sent the matter back to city planners for more study. They will take it up again at an August session which has yet to be finalized.

The issue arose partly as a result of a mix-up in the city's zoning codes covering coastal areas that are not included in the city's downtown redevelopment area.

The area affected by the proposed ordinance is primarily west of Coast Highway from Wisconsin Street south, but it also applies to a portion of Tremont and Cleveland streets north of Wisconsin to the transit station, senior planner Russ Cunningham said.

In 1992, the city as part of a comprehensive update of its zoning code reduced the height allowed for buildings in most portions of the coastal zone outside of the redevelopment area from 35 to 27 feet. The changes affecting the coastal area required California Coastal Commission certification.

In December 2008, the Coastal Commission notified the city that it had never certified the changes with the lower height limits, which meant that the earlier 35-foot limit went back into effect.

The result was not encouraging, Troisi said, with some builders packing as much room as they can on new houses along the coast.

"What's currently being built, is by a lot of people's impressions, not what the city is looking for," Troisi said.

No other coastal city in Southern California allows buildings to be 35 feet tall along the beach, she said.

The proposal planners came up with would keep the height limit at 35 feet but change the point from which the height is measured, Cunningham said.

The effect is to lower the height from 35 feet to 27 feet as measured under existing rules.

Planners have been measuring height from the average level of the ground on which something is built. The new ordinance would measure height from the lowest point of the property.

Troisi said the change would put Oceanside in line with how other cities operate.

But, Cunningham said it also would mean some people with steeply sloped lots couldn't meet the limit and build a second story at street level.

To make up for the lost second story, the proposed ordinance would allow developers to build into the hillside so structures could step down into the slope toward the beach, Cunningham said. They would still have the same amount of living space even without a second story at street level, he said.

Some people argued that building into the slope would make for dark rooms instead of the light, airy beach feel they could get simply by going up two stories, Cunningham said.

The goal is to produce "high quality buildings that protect existing view sheds" without overly restricting property owners, Cunningham said.

Neal, the planning commission chairman, said he was "uncomfortable" with making such a dramatic change and wanted more details on how it would work.

"South Pacific Street, south of Buccaneer Beach, you're not going to be blocking anyone's views," Neal said. On the east side of Pacific Street, "everything's elevated anyway," he said. "You have some people down there that have a lot of money invested, their life's savings. It's a win-win for everybody if they're able to build down there."

Call staff writer Ray Huard at 760-901-4062