Belvedere amends construction timeline and permitting rules
Belvedere has fine-tuned its regulations on the timelines and requirements for construction and landscaping projects.
The City Council unanimously approved the changes following a public hearing Monday night. The ordinance is meant to prevent large projects from persisting for years, disrupting neighborhoods and traffic.
The changes include requiring a specific order of permit inspections from various authorities and a cost evaluation statement. The amendments are minor and meant to clarify the city’s requirements, according to City Manager Robert Zadnik.
“The amendments that we’re presenting tonight aim to improve effectiveness of the construction time limit ordinance,” Zadnik said. “They also ensure the timely submittal of revaluations prior to the close of a project.”
In May, the City Council approved an updated construction time limit ordinance that requires projects that undergo city design review to be completed in six months to two years, depending on the value of the project. The rule applies to both construction and landscaping projects.
Then the City Council asked staff to develop a clear order of operations for final inspections of projects. The amendments added Monday night include requiring applicants to have the building permit approved and signed first by the Tiburon Fire Protection District, then Sanitary District No. 5 of Marin County, then Belvedere’s building office and then Belvedere’s planning office. The signatures have to be obtained for the city to consider the project complete.
Additionally, the ordinance now specifies that applicants must submit a final cost evaluation statement to the city before the building department’s approval. The construction time limit is based on the estimated value of the project.
For projects valued up to $100,000, the time limit is six months; for projects valued between $100,001 and $500,000, one year; for projects valued between $500,001 and $2 million, 18 months; and for projects valued greater than $2 million, two years.
Councilmember Sally Wilkinson, citing recent inflation spikes, asked to add language to the value-to-time-limit index requiring that it be reviewed every five years. Councilmember Jim Lynch said he worried about limiting staff from making adjustments when necessary.
“I think putting a number in there, like every five years, can tie their hands,” Lynch said. “Maybe we do something like at appropriate times, but less frequently than every five years, so they can review it whenever they want but at a minimum every five years, we have to be looking at this, something like that.”
An amendment was added requiring staff to review, and adjust as appropriate, the value index no less than every five years.
A second reading of the ordinance is planned in November.