Belvedere finds shoreline building it never approved

In 2024 (left), the seawall below the main house at 344 Beach Road held no second structure beside the property’s dock. By this March (right), a flat-roofed two-story building stood in that spot, painted and glassed in on both floors. Belvedere posted a stop-work order on the main house March 25 over what it called an illegal structure built without planning or building approval. The owner has not responded to the city. (via city of Belvedere)

Belvedere planning officials walking the shoreline at low tide in March found a two-story building standing at the water’s edge on Beach Road that the city says it never approved. More than four months later, the owner still hasn’t responded.

Building Inspector Genaro Muniz posted a stop-work order on the exterior of the main house at 344 Beach Road on March 25. It says work on the structure was found “not to comply or to be deficient” for a single reason: “For building an illegal structure without Planning or Building Dept. approval.”

The city then obtained photographs from a resident that appear to document the sequence. Images taken in August and September 2024 show the shoreline below the main house with no second building on it. Photos from February 2025 show a two-story structure under construction, sheathed in housewrap with its windows set and scaffolding along one side. Photos taken March 23 show the same building finished — flat-roofed, painted and glassed in on two floors, its lower wall rising from the stone seawall a few feet above the tideline.

Planning and Building Director Rebecca Markwick Markwick said basic details — height, square footage and how the building is being used — remain unknown because the site can’t be seen from Beach Road and the owner has not discussed the work with the city.

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