Belvedere pushing ahead with plans to upgrade seawalls

Belvedere is moving forward with a multimillion-dollar plan to shore up its seawalls, with city officials indicating a design concept may be approved as early as next month — though it appears to have abandoned a pledge to hold a series of public forums dedicated solely to collecting feedback on the proposed project and how to fund it.

Last June, the City Council voted to accept a raft of recommendations from a then-newly formed citizen advisory panel, the Committee to Protect Belvedere’s Seawalls, Levees and Utilities. The recommendation included exploration into raised pathways and short seawalls running between the shoreline and roadways on San Rafael Avenue and Beach Road, as well as barriers on low-lying stretches and West Shore Road.

The package, spurred by a study that showed the city would need to raise its seawalls up to 3½ feet to prevent future flooding, is estimated to cost anywhere from $11 million to $26 million.

At the time, City Manager Craig Middleton said the city would engage in “a series of public forums” by fall to discuss the recommendation and how the work would be paid for — likely through a combination of grants and a new voter-approved parcel tax, he said. Middleton also noted it will likely take years before construction begins, as the city would require feasibility studies and a lengthy permitting process, while costs couldn’t be pinned down until engineers could examine the final proposal.

However, no such forums took place or have been scheduled.

In the meantime, the city has twice revised the proposal, quietly introduced conceptual renderings and is preparing to bring the topic back to the City Council for discussion on Monday, Feb. 10.

Approval of the concept could come as early as its following meeting, in just 4½ weeks, on March 9, at which point the plans would enter a “schematic phase” to produce more detailed engineer renderings and home in on a cost estimate.

In an interview last week, Middleton said the plans would be difficult and costly to change after that point.

“The easiest time to make changes is early in the process, which is now,” he said.

Conceptual renderings revealed

The most recent renderings, designed for the city by Amsterdam-based One Architecture, added public amenities like shoreline parks, beach-access stairs and landscaping not included in the seawall committee’s recommendation.

A number of major changes were also made to the project’s configuration.

A seawall proposed on Beach Road was shifted from the road’s median to a raised pathway that would run parallel to the existing shoreline sidewalk. In doing so, the design eliminates the existing roundabout at the intersection of Beach Road and San Rafael Avenue and roadside access to the San Francisco Yacht Club, but also avoids the need for retractable gates at each intersection.

Additionally, the seawall along San Rafael Avenue was shifted inward, from the bay side of the existing walking path to the inside of the pathway once it’s raised. This move was largely due to riprap pieces that were found by engineers under some of the existing path during shallow borings in the fall.

“One Architecture was asked to look if there was a way to make it better … for its effectiveness and for enhancement of our shoreline,” Middleton said in an interview last week.

The concept design altogether leaves out a necessary flood barrier on Main Street in Tiburon, which engineers say would be overtopped and cause flooding in the Belvedere Lagoon in the event of a 100-year storm but not until sea levels rise 1.1 feet as projected by 2050. 

Middleton said that he and Tiburon Town Manager Greg Chanis had a few informal conversations early on in the process about a deployable flood barrier along Main Street, but those talks have petered out.

“We really need to get Tiburon re-engaged on the subject. We’ve frankly just been focused on getting the Belvedere pieces as great as we can,” Middleton said, but added that, “the Tiburon piece is going to have to be accomplished at the same time as the Belvedere pieces.”

The Tiburon barrier is by far the cheapest, with estimates between $60,000 and $100,000, but officials have not indicated which community would pay for it.

The updated renderings were originally unveiled at the Belvedere City Council’s annual goal-setting retreat just days before Christmas — a half-day event that began at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 18; no members of the public were in attendance. While the seawall plans were a scheduled topic of discussion, there was no indication in the meeting agenda the city would be unveiling conceptual design schematics.

Since then, the city has made a second round of minor adjustments — such as removing two diagonal parking areas on San Rafael Avenue after pushback from nearby residents — and shared the renderings with four West Shore Road residents who would be directly impacted by the seawall, as well as the San Francisco Yacht Club and the Belvedere Land Co., which have properties that would fall outside the Beach Road seawall.

In an interview last week, Middleton said the city is inviting public comment in other ways, such as during agendized discussions of the project at the regular city meetings in February and March. He also said conceptual renderings of the project will be on display in City Hall for the next two or three weeks, and that residents may stop by to view them and leave written comments and suggestions.

Middleton also gave an overview of the design concepts at the city’s annual Town Hall meeting on Jan. 27.

At The Ark’s press deadline Feb. 3, the project renderings were not available on the city’s website, and the renderings on belvedereseawall.org, a site developed specifically for residents to get information and updates on the seawall project, were outdated.

Committee expresses concern

The Belvedere seawall committee received an update on the plans at its midday meeting Jan. 30, and several members of that committee questioned whether the city is doing enough to solicit public input and expressed concern that most residents haven’t been amply exposed to the proposals.

“The more public input we get, the more exposure, the better,” said committee member Andy Allen, co-owner of the Belvedere Land Co., which owns several apartment buildings on Beach Road.

Mayor Nancy Kemnitzer, who also sits on the seawall committee, echoed Allen’s comments.

“I would certainly like to have a longer rather than shorter period of public comment, and I want to make sure that as much comment as possible gets to the City Council,” she said at the meeting.

Committee member Bill Rothman, who voted to back the recommendations but has remained vocally skeptical of the project and the ability to pay for it, noted in an email to The Ark ahead of the meeting that he had not been provided with the renderings and that they weren’t available when he stopped by City Hall earlier in the week.

“If the committee members themselves do not even have the benefit of appropriate transparency to arrive at appropriate recommendations, then that is truly not very transparent,” he said.

In an ensuing interview, he said the city would have a tough time getting the project funded without the public’s support.

“At the end of the discussion, there’s going to be a (public) vote. They’re going to have to convince two-thirds of the population to approve this,” he said. “Somebody might think they’re being smart about rushing this through, but they aren’t.”

Middleton said the city may still hold a special hearing or forum on the seawall project, noting, “We haven’t mapped out our public discussion schedule.”

“Sometimes those big public meetings aren’t the best way to get people’s thoughts,” he said, adding that some people are nervous to speak in front of crowds. “What you really try to do is get public input in a lot of different ways.”

Executive Editor Kevin Hessel contributed to this report. Reporter Hannah Weikel covers the city of Belvedere, as well as crime, courts and public safety issues on the Tiburon Peninsula. Reach her at 415-944-4627.