The owner of the Foster City Marina Center property is suing the city for $50 million over its nearby levee project construction, alleging contractors used his undeveloped land to transport heavy machinery without his permission.
The site is owned by Sam Runco, an entrepreneur known as a pioneer in the field of TVs and home theater systems who received an Engineering Emmy Award. The controversial property at Beach Park Boulevard near Halibut and Swordfish streets has been considered for several mixed-use development proposals to create the Bayside community’s first marina, complete with 160 residential units, 20,500 square feet of retail space and a pier with anchored buoys for boats. However, the Foster City Council rejected the proposal in 2015 following community pushback and environmental concerns.
Runco is suing the city and contractors hired to build the levee project. He alleges the contractors entered his private property with large construction trucks and used his land without consent. Runco claims the contractor laid down plywood to make a bridge over a drainage bed, graded a 25-foot wide road, built a fence that prevents access to the property and stored construction materials on the land. He alleges the city could use his land for the future upkeep of the levee. Runco said the city has denied contractors have used his property.
“It is obvious that they are planning to use my property to perform needed maintenance on the levee without permission in the future,” Runco said in a press release.
A Foster City spokesperson said the city did not have any comment about the lawsuit.
Runco said the construction further denies him access to his property and prevents future land development, condemning it unfairly. A marina is called for in founder T. Jack Foster’s master plan that started the city, although attempts to build one have failed six times. The lawsuit was filed in San Mateo County Superior Court and asked for injunctive relief and monetary damages of around $50 million.
“It seems as though the city is perfectly willing to prevent me and others from using the land but feel perfectly fine using the land for their own use,” Runco said.
Foster City’s levee project is upgrading its 8-mile levee system to protect the city from rising sea levels and avoid the federal government mapping it as a flood zone. The project is increasing the levee height and width through a conventional sea wall, earthen levee or hybrid sheet pile wall. The project is also widening the levee trail for recreation use. Construction is occurring in stages across the Bayfront and near Runco’s property, with the levee trail currently closed. The project began in October 2020 and will be completed in 2023.
Runco, a 50-year resident, sued the city in 2017 over the $90 million levee project. He alleged the levee project should wrap around his undeveloped property to protect it to ensure further development. The existing levee doesn’t currently go around Runco’s property, which includes lands that extend out into the environmentally-sensitive San Francisco Bay. His 2017 lawsuit said the city’s environmental impact report should have studied the impacts of the new levee not protecting his Bayfront property.
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