Demolition crews began tearing down the Mallard Pointe apartment complex along the Belvedere shoreline on Oct. 15, kicking off the long-anticipated replacement of 22 existing residential units with a new 40-unit development. By Oct. 16, an excavator was already hauling debris to a dumpster on site.
Demolition Finally Underway at the Lagoon
The project at 1–22 Mallard Road has been inching toward this moment for months. According to the City of Belvedere, the city issued the demolition permit on July 15, with officials noting that demolition could begin as early as Sept. 15. The bulkhead replacement permit followed on Oct. 1, covering structural integrity, geotechnical safety, interim site drainage and environmental protections including turbidity curtains along the lagoon edge.
Developer Thompson Dorfman LLC may now begin in-water bulkhead work in the Belvedere lagoon now that demolition has started, but only after meeting additional conditions. The company must install a shoreline silt fence shown in the approved plans, or secure approval for an alternative, and must add a second full-depth turbidity curtain before bulkhead work can begin, according to the seed reporting from The Ark.
A Tight Timeline for In-Water Work
The clock is already ticking on the lagoon work. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has allowed lagoon work only through Oct. 22, and Thompson Dorfman plans to seek more time for that work, per the same reporting. That timeline fits with the broader sequencing the city laid out: demolition approval requires bulkhead replacement to begin within 14 calendar days after demolition starts, and developer principal Bruce Dorfman has said demolition can be completed safely within 60 days, as reported by The Ark.
The Oct. 1 permit authorized replacement of the roughly 903-foot bulkhead with vinyl sheet piling capped with wood, work that requires a silt curtain the state wildlife agency mandates for any in-water activity. The city had previously expected demolition to start in late October or early November and run about five weeks, a timeline that Oct. 15 start date has now outpaced.
Residents Push Back on Permit Timing
Not everyone is satisfied with how quickly the permits moved. A residents’ group has appealed the project’s bulkhead permits, and the Belvedere City Council is scheduled to hear that appeal on Nov. 9. City Manager Robert Zadnik has said an appeal alone is not grounds to suspend a permit, the same outlet reports. Under Belvedere’s adopted state building code, a building official may suspend a permit only if it was issued in error, based on incorrect or incomplete information, or in violation of an ordinance or regulation.
A separate dispute over access for the silt curtain could leave about 150 feet of the old bulkhead in place along lots 2 and 3, according to the outlet’s earlier coverage. The developer had still needed a separate permit to replace the bulkhead as of mid-September, according to MarinIJ, and the city had previously said demolition could not start until that bulkhead permit was issued.
Bigger Plans Still on the Table
While the 40-unit project is what’s approved and now under demolition, Thompson Dorfman has also floated a far larger alternative. The developer filed an application for a project described as 70 units, though its listed components total 74: a 55-unit, four-story apartment building, six single-family homes, an accessory dwelling unit, two duplexes and an eight-unit fourplex, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. That alternative would also include 14 deed-restricted affordable units, up from four in the original project, per the same report.
The City Council had already shown some flexibility on timing earlier this year, approving a nine-month extension of Mallard Pointe’s tentative subdivision map that now runs through March 19, 2027, according to the city’s own council report. For now, the approved 40-unit project is what’s moving forward on Mallard Road, with crews working against both a state deadline on lagoon work and a council hearing next month that could reshape how the rest of the shoreline construction proceeds.
