Belvedere cuts Bayview construction fine from $154,800 to $18,000

A Belvedere homeowner must pay $18,000 in construction penalties — rather than the $154,800 originally assessed — after the City Council found that Pacific Gas and Electric’s repeated failures to connect utilities pushed his Bayview Avenue project months past its deadline.

The council voted 4-0, with Mayor Sally Wilkinson absent, on March 9 to reduce construction time-limit penalties on the recently completed home at 218 Bayview Ave.

Under the city’s construction time-limit ordinance, the project — a new three-story single-family residence, garage and associated site and landscape improvements — was initially given an 18-month construction window based on its $1.6 million valuation, setting an original deadline of Nov. 10, 2024. A later six-month extension brought the total allowed period to 24 months and pushed the final deadline to May 10, 2025.

When the project received its final inspections and approvals on Dec. 4, 2025, it was 174 days past that deadline, triggering automatic penalties totaling $154,800. The property owner, Vinh Phan of the Phan Ta 2017 Trust, appealed and asked the city to waive the fines, arguing the delay was caused by PG&E’s failure to provide timely gas and electric service.

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