Pacifica · San Mateo County
Salt air eats hardware. The city legislated about it in 1988.
Pacifica has had its own Security of Buildings chapter since September 1988, and it bans something most locksmiths will happily sell you.
Chapter 5-27, and the double cylinder ban
Pacifica Municipal Code title 5, chapter 27 is called Security of Buildings. It came in by Ordinance 514-C.S. and took effect on 21 September 1988.
The provision worth knowing first: section 5-27.201(b), for houses, states that "Double-keyed, double-cylinder deadbolts are not permitted". Section 5-27.302(h) says the same for apartment unit doors.
A double cylinder deadbolt is the kind that needs a key on the inside as well as the outside. People fit them when there is glass beside the door, so that breaking the glass does not let somebody reach the thumbturn. The problem is that you then cannot get out of your own house in a fire without finding a key in the dark. Pacifica decided that trade is not worth it. So have most fire codes, but Pacifica wrote it into its own chapter.
If you have glass next to your door and you want it secure, the answer here is laminated or burglary-resistant glazing, or a bolt whose thumbturn cannot be reached, not a second keyhole.
Pacifica Municipal Code §§5-27.201 and 5-27.302, read from a secondary publisher; the City's own code viewer does not render for automated reading. Confirm section numbers with the City Clerk before relying on them.
What else the chapter actually specifies
- Doors. Exterior doors and the garage-to-house door are solid core, or panelled at no less than 9/16 inch. A deadbolt is required in addition to a deadlocking latch, not instead of one.
- Strikes. Into wood, at least two No. 8 screws, each two and a half inches long, and the gap between trimmer and jamb solidly shimmed.
- Sliding glass doors. The vertical play has to be taken up so the panel cannot be lifted out with a bar, bolts are hardened steel or carry hardened inserts, and an auxiliary pin-type lock is required, preferably keyed.
- Windows. Locks must withstand 300 pounds applied in any direction, all accessible operable windows need a secondary lock, and louvered glass windows are not allowed.
- Garage doors. A cylinder-locked door needs a bar or bolt reaching at least one inch into the receiving guide, and a door over 16 feet wide needs two lock points.
- Numbers. Street numbers at least three inches tall, illuminated and visible from the street.
The chapter is permit triggered rather than retroactive. It reaches building permit applications filed after September 1988, condominium conversions, and buildings that change occupancy group. Nobody is going to make you retrofit an untouched 1960s house.
One more line that surprises people. Section 5-27.601 makes owners, their agents, tenants and the project's general contractor jointly and severally responsible for complying with the chapter. Tenants are named in it.
Pacifica Municipal Code ch. 5-27, articles 1, 2, 3 and 6.
A 1950s and 1960s town on the coast
Pacifica's own hazard mitigation annex says the city "grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, and most of its current housing (over 50%) was built during those decades". The Housing Element breaks it down: 37 percent from the 1950s or earlier, 26 percent in the 1960s, 22 percent in the 1970s. The last major building period was the seventies.
By type it is the most house-heavy city we cover: 73 percent single family detached, around 80 percent single family of any kind, out of 14,577 units. Only 7 percent is in buildings of twenty units or more.
Then there is the thing the ordinance does not mention. Pacifica's chapter sets mechanical specifications and says nothing about corrosion. On the coast that is the problem. Salt fog gets into cylinders, seizes pins, pits strike plates and swells latch bolts in their housings, and it does it to hardware that would last thirty years inland.
If your key has started to feel gritty or the deadbolt needs a shoulder, that is usually corrosion rather than a lock about to fail outright. It is fixable, and it is worth doing before the key snaps off in it on a wet night.
City of Pacifica annex to the 2026 San Mateo County Local Hazard Mitigation Plan; Pacifica Housing Element tables I-9 and II-11, 2009–2011 ACS.
Where we go in Pacifica
All nine of the communities that incorporated as the City of Pacifica on 22 November 1957: Edgemar, Vallemar, Sharp Park, Pedro Point, Rockaway Beach, Pacific Manor, Westview, Fairway Park and Linda Mar. Plus West Linda Mar, Park Pacifica, Fairmont West and the Westview Pacific Highlands, which are how the City groups the place today.
Sharp Park, Pacific Manor, Edgemar, Pedro Point, Fairmont and Vallemar hold the oldest housing in the city, so that is where original hardware and seized cylinders turn up most.
In an emergency, 20 to 30 minutes, with the honest caveat that everything here depends on Highway 1. If the highway is down, so are we.
Questions people ask here
My deadbolt is stiff and the key grinds. Is the lock dying?
On the coast, usually not. It is salt in the cylinder and corrosion on the bolt. Cleaning, servicing and the right lubricant often brings it back. If it has gone too far we will tell you rather than sell you a service that will not hold.
I have glass beside my front door. Can I fit a lock that needs a key inside?
Not in Pacifica. Section 5-27.201 prohibits double-keyed double-cylinder deadbolts on houses, and 5-27.302 does the same for apartment doors. Laminated glazing or a shielded thumbturn is the way to solve it.
My sliding door to the deck feels loose.
The chapter asks for the vertical play to be taken out so the panel cannot be lifted off the track, plus an auxiliary pin lock. Most sliders here have neither. It is a short job.
Do you come out past Devil's Slide?
Pacifica itself, all of it. Further down the coast, call and ask, and we will give you a straight answer about the drive rather than a guess.
Need a locksmith in Pacifica now?
A person answers, at any hour, in English or Spanish. If it is not urgent, we will hold a day and a time for you instead.
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