The Sausalito City Council has denied a request by the owner of Bridgeway Marina to lease tidelands under neighboring Pelican Harbour.
The 4-0 vote at a special council meeting Thursday came after live-aboard residents and mariners at Pelican Harbour and other community leaders opposed plans by Bridgeway Marina owner Cameron Razavi to purchase Pelican Harbour.
The decision to reject the tidelands lease prevents the $13.4 million sale from closing.
“It’s not a pure commercial transaction,” Mayor Steven Woodside said Friday. “We have an obligation in the public interest to public health, public safety and quality of life. And obligations under the tidelands trust to be a faithful steward of the land that is the subject of the lease.”
“It wasn’t the right decision but I understand the council’s difficult position – that’s the bottom line,” Razavi said Friday. “Let’s put it this way — hundreds of their constituents versus a businessman who already manages one marina but wants another.”
“Imagine if they vote for me — the backlash would be unbelievable to them, right?” he said.
Pelican Harbour and Bridgeway Marina sit about a quarter-mile apart, separated by open water. Sara Flynn, whose family has owned Pelican Harbour for decades, asked the city to transfer the tidelands lease to a new limited liability corporation owned by Razavi’s wife, Christina Suh.
As word of the sale became known in April, a handful of Pelican Harbour residents urged the council to intervene until another buyer was found. Opponents said Razavi’s record as the proprietor of Bridgeway Marina should be disqualifying.
The council scheduled a special meeting for Thursday. Assistant City Manager Brendan Phipps, City Attorney Sergio Rudin and city building inspectors prepared a detailed staff report that was released Wednesday.
The report included a section on Razavi’s “qualifications and suitability” that listed government enforcement actions or lawsuits for housing and safety code violations at properties in San Francisco, Sacramento County and Yolo County.
The cases included a 2016 guilty plea for “substandard” apartments in Carmichael, the report said. It said a judge later put Razavi in jail for failing to make required corrections and missing mandatory court appearances.
The report also details a “long and documented history of code enforcement issues spanning multiple decades” at Bridgeway Marina.
“These issues have included, among other things, multiple expired building permits that never received final inspections, years of illegal construction through unpermitted work, the addition of illegal floating docks, unapproved off-street parking and storage of cargo/vehicles, as well as inadequate wastewater discharge procedures,” it said.
“Moreover, as recently as 2025, the City received new complaints about code violations at Bridgeway Marina related to electrical system issues and short-term rental listings,” it said. “The City and the marina operator cooperated from 2016 through 2024 to address code violations and health and safety issues, with limited success in achieving full compliance.”
The staff report also said the lease transfer application lacked sufficient banking, insurance and other financial documentation.
The council received 15 letters before the meeting — all opposing the tidelands lease. During the meeting, a dozen commenters spoke out against the proposal.
“This is not simply a real estate transaction,” said Rob McCullough, a 26-year Pelican Harbour resident. “The property involves state tidelands held by the city in public trust with corresponding stewardship obligations.”
“The staff report formally documents a long history of operational, regulatory and code enforcement concerns including administrative citations, fire and electrical concerns, unpermitted uses, floating dock issues, short-term rental concerns and repeated involvement by multiple city departments and outside agencies,” he said. “To be fair, the historical record does reflect periods of cooperation and partial remediation.”
“This file is in no way ripe for action,” Sophia Collier said. “There are many unanswered questions and I think it would be very easy to actually write up findings about why a no decision would be justified.”
“From what I’ve heard, the city has tried to work with this party — and with limited, incomplete success,” she said. “Wouldn’t we love to hear the record of an operator with a great record?”
“I’m concerned about the maintenance of our harbor,” said Allison Deal, a 30-year resident. “The first thing these people have done is to fire our harbormaster, who is the person that maintains our harbor.”
Lauren de Remer, another resident, presented photos she took a day before of dangling electrical lines at Bridgeway Marina.
“I’m really struggling with trust. I’m really struggling with respect when I see something like this,” she said. “This is about a missed opportunity to find a qualified person to see through the future of our marina and the future of that whole area of the waterfront.”
“Pelican Harbour is not some distressed property that will cease to function if is not rescued,” said Ian Fletcher, who keeps a boat there. “It is a commercially viable marina, which could easily be sold to another investor, and there is therefore no reason to tolerate transfer of this marina to a demonstrably unsuitable owner.”
Razavi attended the council meeting but declined to comment. The council discussion was brief.
“There appears to me to be ample and sufficient evidence presented in the staff report and briefings that we’ve received that supports a decision by the city to withhold consent for assignment of the leases, and I’m inclined to support a motion to that effect,” said Councilmember Jill Hoffman.
Councilmember Joan Cox made that motion, citing “comments from the community” and “key outstanding items” in the staff report.
The motion was approved 4-0. Councilmember Ian Sobieski was absent.
The council instructed the city manager and city attorney to draft a letter saying why the lease was denied.
On Friday, Razavi said the council vote would prevent the sale from proceeding.
“Maybe we’ll appeal the decision; I don’t know yet,” he said. “I want a project that is win-win. I don’t want a project that is adversarial.”