Mallard Pointe revision to give city 15-unit apartment option

The developers behind the controversial Mallard Pointe project will return to the Belvedere Planning Commission this month with a revised alternative to slash the proposed apartment complex to 15 units, allowing for a streetside courtyard and more townhomes.

The revision, which still seeks 40 total units, comes in response to community objections to the originally proposed 23-unit apartment building and to the commission’s own concerns about the height of fourplexes offered as an alternative.

“This is … our attempt to continue to be responsive to the comments we have heard, and to come forward with an option for the city to approve should it find it preferable to the base application,” said Bruce Dorfman of Mill Valley-based developer Thompson Dorfman Partners.

Dorfman, also a co-owner of the 2.84-acre property as Mallard Pointe 1951 LLC, is seeking to demolish the existing 22 units of two-bedroom, market-rate duplexes along private Mallard Road between City Hall and the Belvedere Lagoon. Those would be replaced with single- and multifamily homes of one to five bedrooms, including four affordable units in the apartment complex.

The original application, submitted in June 2021, includes the 23-unit apartment building in the residential island between Mallard and Community roads, across from City Hall. That plan is still in play and will be considered alongside the alternative at the Planning Commission’s March 19 hearing.

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