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Mallard Pointe Map
Belvedere Developer’s Story Doesn’t Add Up
Regarding the recent Marin IJ article about the Mallard Pointe development proposal in Belvedere (State urges review of Belvedere Housing project 10/15/23), one has to ask -- why would a state agency in Sacramento support a for-profit developer who wants to tear down small, older affordable rental units to build new multi-million-dollar mansions and condos?
As is, the Mallard Pointe property consists of 22 two-bedroom duplex homes located in an established neighborhood, on a lagoon, in a flood zone, on fill, next to a public park and playground. It’s one of the few inexpensive places seniors and workers can live in Belvedere, or at least it was until the new owners/developers almost doubled the rents.
The proposed project is for a brand new 12-lot subdivision consisting of six large lagoon-front-homes (one with an ADU), ten large townhouse “duettes,” and a huge apartment block with 23 “luxury flats for empty nesters” in which there are only four small units for lower-income households. All the current tenants would be displaced, many of them senior, singles, young families.Really, how could they afford to come back?
The property site is zoned “R-2” which allows only “two-family duplex dwellings” and “single-family homes.” The City’s General Plan and zoning ordinance clearly prohibit multi-family apartment buildings.
Story poles outline proposed, massive apartment building
This indisputable fact has been established numerous times by the legal counsel of a community group called BRIG (Belvedere Residents for Intelligent Growth) and by the City itself in its communications with the developer. But this developer and his incalcitrant attorneys refuse to back down, insisting on their own alternate versions of how City zoning and land use regulations work, claiming this or that reason will let them build whatever they want here, and avoid mandated reviews under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
Even more troubling is that the Department of Housing & Community Development (HCD), an unelected state agency run by a politically-appointed board, is now endorsing that false narrative. Under the State Constitution, cities are empowered to interpret the meaning and intentions of their current adopted General Plan, zoning ordinances and codes. HCD’s powers stop at enforcing state housing laws through their ability to bring cases before the Attorney General for possible prosecution. Final decisions on such matters must be sought in the courts.
The City of Belvedere’s policy is and always has been to protect and build small, low-priced housing, not to deplete its already scant rental stock and increase local housing prices even further. State housing laws were meant to promote affordability, not help developers build large new luxury homes instead of small compact ones. And CEQA reviews should not be circumvented -- they’re the only way a city and its residents can try to understand and analyze all the potential environmental impacts of a proposed project and require measures to mitigate them.
Look at the developer’s plans. Their whole story doesn’t add up.