Debate grows in Belvedere over private improvements on the Strip

Belvedere’s public shoreline includes a series of three parcels along Belvedere Cove collectively known as the Strip — roughly outlined in yellow — which spans from 172 Beach Road, near the Harry B. Allen public walking lane, to 340 Beach Road. Belvedere Land Co. deeded the Strip to the city in 1897 with restrictions prohibiting private structures other than wharves, boathouses or bathhouses. (Kevin Hessel graphic / The Ark; Apple Maps)

A strip of low-tide beach along Belvedere Cove is at the center of a debate over how much the city should demand of homeowners who build private structures on public land — and what the public’s getting in return.

The shoreline in question is the Strip, a narrow corridor of city-owned land just south of the San Francisco Yacht Club parking lot. It runs a third of a mile from 172 Beach Road, near the Harry B. Allen public walking lane, to 340 Beach Road. Accessible on foot only at low tide, the three-parcel Strip was deeded to the city by Belvedere Land Co. in 1897 for use as a public waterfront, with language requiring that no structure impede “free passage of pedestrians from one end of The Strip to the other.”

The deed includes a reversion clause: if its conditions are violated, the land reverts to the land company.

Over the decades, homeowners along Beach Road have built stairs, retaining walls, fences, decks, hillevators and landings on the Strip, mostly to reach their private docks in the cove. In all, 17 of 21 residential parcels bordering the Strip hold revocable licenses, the city’s standard tool for authorizing private improvements on public land. The licenses can be revoked at any time at the council’s discretion.

At the City Council’s May 11 meeting, Planning and Building Director Rebecca Markwick told the council the public benefit is hard to pin down.

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