The house owned by pop star Beyoncé Knowles’ father, Matthew, is one of four houses that was added into the federal buyout program after city council members in November directed the city to include properties within 200 feet of the mean low tide.

The Knowles family’s Pirates’ Beach house was added in the program between November and January, when the number of houses the city approved for a buyout jumped from 64 to 68. Three houses surrounding the Knowles property on Sand Crab Lane already had been approved for buyouts.

The Knowles’ hurricane-damaged house had been under repair for months. When city building inspectors last year stopped a contractor from pouring concrete under the house because it was on the public easement, Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson said he had no intention of removing the house.

Repairs continued. Then the home ended up in the buyout program along with three others. The city stopped accepting applications for the buyout program in January. Not all 68 houses in the buyout program are on the public beach under the new definition issued by the Texas General Land Office, city spokeswoman Alicia Cahill said.

The land office shortened the public beach boundary to 200 feet landward of the mean low tide line from the first boundary it set after the hurricane, which was the 4.5-foot elevation line. Some of the houses were included in the buyout program before the state moved the line seaward, Cahill said.

The beach will get even wider once the state starts its beach rebuilding project. That project, which will widen the West End beach by about 200 feet, is projected to start around Labor Day.