To legalize a decades-old duplex, Town proposes rezoning 125 Baltimore Avenue

At 125 Baltimore Avenue, the Town is proposing to change the property's General Plan designation from Low Density Residential to Medium Density Residential and rezone it from R-1 Medium-Density Residential to R-2 Low-Density Multiple-Dwelling. The goal isn't new construction — it's paperwork: the parcel has long held a legal nonconforming two-unit residential use that doesn't match its current zoning designation, and this amendment would bring the zoning into line with reality.

No demolition, no new units, and no physical changes are proposed. Staff frames this as a first step toward a separate, future lot line adjustment with the adjoining 7 Willow Avenue parcel, intended to resolve a boundary encroachment between the two properties.

Staff recommends the Commission adopt a resolution forwarding approval to the Town Council, along with a finding that the project is exempt from further environmental review under CEQA. As of the staff report's writing, planner Savannah Lane noted the Town had not received any public comment on the proposal.

Commissioners push back on food trucks, parking rules and outdoor storage in commercial zoning overhaul

The Commission is set to hear a broad rewrite of the Town's commercial and mixed-use zoning rules, the Commercial Code Modernization Project, touching Titles 12 and 18 of the Municipal Code. The package would consolidate more than 300 land-use categories, loosen parking requirements (allowing shared parking and two-wheel-vehicle substitutions), add a temporary-use chapter, codify a citywide microbusiness (food truck) program capped at up to seven locations, set sidewalk vending rules under state law, and shift several uses — restaurants, banks, studios, indoor fitness, hotels — from conditional to permitted. Tucked into the package is a spot rezone of 2 Tamalpais Drive from residential to commercial (C-1) use. Staff recommends the Commission adopt a resolution recommending Council adopt the amendments as drafted.

The draft drew pointed concerns from commissioners ahead of the hearing. Vice Chair Kenney objected to letting outdoor storage uses in by-right in the C-3 District, warning it's inappropriate for such visible "gateway" properties along major roadways, and questioned allowing day care centers near the freeway in C-4 and MX-1 zones. He also wants a shared-parking study requirement and asked whether public parking should count toward a property's parking demand, plus landscaping standards if commercial parking is allowed in front setbacks.

Chair Chase warned the rules as written would keep Fitness SF from operating as it currently does and argued flexibility should guide parking standards; a Fitness SF representative echoed that in public comment, pushing for percentage-based standards over fixed thresholds. Commissioner Rodgers said property owners should get more say over their own parking areas and that he generally favors more, not fewer, microbusinesses, saying multiple food vendors in one spot can help each other. Commissioner Harlock said he could support two microbusinesses at Menke Park rather than the proposed cap of one. Commissioner Boshoer asked about requiring bike and EV parking beyond state building code minimums — staff said no, citing cost concerns for commercial property owners — and pushed for a 12-month compliance review on each microbusiness permit.

Other public comment came from a Headlands Preparatory School representative asking that private schools be allowed as a conditional use in the MX-1 District, and a Village Shopping Center representative voicing support for food trucks to broaden customer choice.