This paper presents the design of a MEMS resonator with capacitive transduction as an acoustic sensor, intended for cantilever-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy. The sensor employs area-variable capacitive detection by surrounding the silicon resonator with dense comb teeth. To reduce gas damping effects on the resonator motion, the anchor height is increased to 260 µm. This approach successfully resolves the capacitance detection sensitivity and motion damping trade-off commonly seen in acoustic detection. Experimental results exhibit a maximum sensitivity of 3749 mV/Pa at the resonant frequency of 1870 Hz with a 15 V bias voltage. The equivalent noise has a peak value of 7.9 µPa/Hz1/2 and the noise sources are analyzed.