Mallard Pointe project wins environmental exemption on appeal
A rendering shows a proposed mix of duplexes and single-family homes in the Mallard Pointe community on the Belvedere Lagoon. (via Mallard Pointe 1951 LLC)
By Francisco Martinez | The Ark – January 23, 2024
The Belvedere City Council has cleared a major roadblock for the 40-unit redevelopment of Mallard Pointe, ruling that the proposal is exempt from further environmental study.
The council’s 3-1 vote on Jan. 22 overturned a unanimous November decision by the Planning Commission to require more study, which project attorney Riley Hurd last week called an abuse of state environmental laws and “the last bastion of hope for those dead set against this project getting built.”
In lauding the council’s decision, developer Bruce Dorfman of Thompson Dorfman Partners, an ownership partner in the site as Mallard Pointe 1951 LLC, said he now hopes to win final approval in May so he can begin demolition next year.
“We were incredibly pleased by the City Council’s decision to uphold our appeal,” Dorfman said. “Personally, in my three decades of experience, I have never seen a City Council that was as well-prepared, thoughtful and engaged. Their knowledge of (the California Environmental Quality Act) as it applied to our application and the city was impressive.”
The 2.8-acre site, split by Mallard Road, is home to 22 units of duplexes. The project would replace those with five duplexes, six single-family homes and an accessory dwelling unit on the Belvedere Lagoon. The remaining 23 units along Community Road, across from City Hall, would be in an apartment complex or across fourplexes and a triplex. In all, the project would add 18 total new units to the site, four of them deed-restricted for low-income tenants. However, Dorfman has said that once the project’s approved, he’ll seek approval of two more second units at the houses for 42 units overall.
He said he’s tabling the 70-unit alternative plan submitted a week before the hearing. Had the appeal failed, he said, more units would be needed to keep the project profitable after time-consuming and costly environmental study.
The project will go back to the Planning Commission for review, though no date had been set by The Ark’s press time.