Belmont, California, United States

🇺🇸 Belmont is a city in San Mateo County in the U.S. state of California. It is in the San Francisco Bay Area, on the San Francisco Peninsula about halfway between San Francisco and San Jose. Known for its wooded hills, views of the San Francisco Bay and stretches of open space, Belmont is a quiet residential community in the midst of the culturally and technologically rich Bay Area. It was originally part of Rancho de las Pulgas, for which one of its main roads, the Alameda de las Pulgas, is named. The city was incorporated in 1926.

Ralston Hall is a historic landmark built by Bank of California founder William Chapman Ralston on the campus of Notre Dame de Namur University, and is also home to Notre Dame High School. It was built around a villa formerly owned by Count Leonetto Cipriani an Italian aristocrat. The locally famous "Waterdog Lake" is also located in the foothills and highlands of Belmont. A surviving structure from the Panama–Pacific International Exposition is on Belmont Avenue (another is the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco). The building was brought to Belmont by E.D. Swift shortly after the exposition closed in 1915.

The city is bordered by San Mateo to the north, Half Moon Bay to the west, Redwood Shores to the east, and San Carlos to the south.

Belmont has a smoking ordinance, passed in January 2009, which bans smoking in all businesses and multi-story apartments and condominiums; the ordinance has been described as one of the strictest in the nation.

Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a land area of 4.63 square miles (12.0 km²) and 0.009 square miles (0.023 km²) of water.

Facilities The city is served by the Belmont Public Library of the San Mateo County Libraries, a member of the Peninsula Library System.

The city has a number of parks. This includes Twin Pines Park, Waterdog Lake Open Space, Semeria Park and Davey Glen Park.

Child education is provided by public and private facilities. Students in Belmont are eligible to receive public schooling through two school districts: Belmont-Redwood Shores School District (kindergarten through middle school) and Sequoia Union High School District (high school). There are also several private schools. The private Charles Armstrong School specializes in language-based learning differences, such as dyslexia.

The city's largest hotel is Hyatt House, which is an apartment hotel and caters mostly to a business clientele, due to its proximity to Oracle headquarters.

Economy: Top employers According to a recent Financial Report, the top employers in 2021 were: 1 RingCentral, Inc.; 2 Autobahn Motors; 3 Safeway Store #1138; 4 Volkswagen Group of America; 5 Nikon Precision, Inc.; 6 Silverado Senior Living; 7 Lunardi's Market; 8 James Electronics Ltd.; 9 Woodmont Real Estate Services; 10 Merry Moppet Preschool, Inc.

Colleges Notre Dame de Namur University Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU) is a private Catholic university in Belmont, California. It is the third oldest college in California and the first college in the state authorized to grant the baccalaureate degree to women. In 2021, the university announced it will begin to operate as a graduate school only.

The university is organized into three schools: the School of Business and Management, the School of Education, and the School of Psychology. Notre Dame de Namur University offers 15 undergraduate degrees, 10 graduate degrees and four credentials. In addition to traditional undergraduate and graduate programs, the university offers an evening bachelor's degree completion program for working adults as well as online degree programs.