Corte Madera Votes to Ban All Tobacco and Vape Sales — First in Northern California

After a hearing that drew public health advocates, a Redwood High School student, a Tiburon mayor and a national retail trade group all to the podium, the Town Council voted 4-1 on August 4 to introduce an ordinance ending all retail sale of tobacco and nicotine products in Corte Madera — cigarettes, cigars, vapes, heated tobacco systems and nicotine pouches alike. Mayor Thomas called it a first for the region: the first Northern California town to ban tobacco sales outright.

“When the kids and teens of our community stand up to tell us that they are worried about how the tobacco industry is preying on their generation... I believe that we as leaders have an obligation to listen and respond.”— Councilmember Beckman, voting to advance the ban · ▶ Watch this exchange

Existing retailers get a transition period council extended, on the fly, from December 31 to January 31, 2027. No new tobacco retailer licenses will be issued once the ordinance takes effect, and the draft includes no hardship extension; enforcement will lean mainly on County Health and Sheriff's staff. Because council amended the wording and pushed the date, the ordinance needs a brand-new first reading, expected September 1.

Public comment split sharply along predictable lines. Backing the ban: Redwood student Rhett Crowett, physician John Mai, Tiburon Mayor Holly Dear (who cited Marin teen vaping rates running more than double the statewide average), and national tobacco-control voices who noted Ross, Tiburon, Beverly Hills and Manhattan Beach have already passed similar bans without legal blowback. Opposing it: Paradise Wine's Monty Walia and Chevron owner Sodi Singh, both touting spotless compliance records, plus industry rep Brian Lamb and the National Association of Tobacco Outlets, which argued the policy criminalizes FDA-authorized products and will just push sales — and Corte Madera's tax base — across town lines. Councilmember Andrews cast the lone no vote, citing concern for small businesses and urging the town to let the existing ordinance prove itself first.

150-Unit Senior Care Facility at 56 Madera Boulevard Gets the Green Light

Minutes filed this week confirmed what happened a month ago: the Town Council approved a 150-unit Residential Care Facility for the Elderly at 56 Madera Boulevard — 118 assisted living units plus 32 memory care units — voting 4-0 with Councilmember Beckman absent.

The approval bundled a Conditional Use Permit, Preliminary and Precise Plans with Design Review, and a CEQA exemption finding the project consistent with 2009 General Plan density and free of new or worse impacts than already anticipated. Staff recommended approval outright.

Seven residents — Catherine and Kenton Wolfers, Ruben Galvan, Pati Stoliar, Mary Connolly, David Macpherson and Barbara Salzman — filed public comment on the project, though the minutes don't spell out what they said, only that they weighed in before the council voted it through.

Flood-Weary Residents Want a Standing Agenda Item; Town Manager Calls the Ask "Unfair"

For the third time, residents Roy and Arlene Wolford asked the council to create a standing, recurring agenda item on tidal-flood mitigation, arguing Corte Madera has no regular public mechanism for tracking progress on protecting Mariner Cove, Marina Village and the industrial district from rising water. Roy Wolford took the podium in person to press the point again.

“I want to briefly reiterate why a standing agenda item matters. Flood protection is not a one-time discussion, it is a continuous process. Without regular reporting, the public cannot see progress, cannot evaluate priorities, and cannot participate meaningfully. A monthly agenda item is not bureaucracy, it is accountability.”— Roy and Arlene Wolford, in written comment to the council

Town Manager Adam Wolff pushed back hard, calling the framing "a completely unfair characterization of our council members who are very invested and interested in flood matters." Vice Mayor Cassissa offered a middle path — folding regular flood-effort bullet points into the town manager's report rather than creating a formal standing item — but no vote was taken either way.

The exchange landed amid a broader mid-year work-plan review that found only 10 of roughly 40 items completed so far this year, though the long-delayed Christmas Tree Hill PG&E undergrounding project did get pulled forward, from a projected 2038 start to 2029.

Commercial Zoning Rewrite Heads to a Hearing, With Fitness SF and Food Trucks in the Crossfire

Tuesday's Planning Commission hearing will take up the Commercial Code Modernization Project, a sweeping rewrite of Titles 12 and 18 touching every commercial and mixed-use zone in town. The package consolidates more than 300 land-use categories, loosens parking rules (shared parking, two-wheel-vehicle substitutions), adds a temporary-use chapter, codifies a citywide food-truck program capped at seven locations, sets sidewalk vending rules under state law, and shifts restaurants, banks, studios, indoor fitness and hotels from conditional to permitted uses. Tucked inside: a spot rezone of 2 Tamalpais Drive from residential to commercial.

Commissioners flagged real friction points ahead of the vote. Vice Chair Kenney doesn't want outdoor storage allowed by-right on visible "gateway" C-3 properties and questioned day care centers near the freeway in C-4 and MX-1 zones. Chair Chase warned the draft as written would stop Fitness SF from operating as it does now and pushed for percentage-based parking standards instead of fixed thresholds — a position the gym's own representative echoed in public comment. Commissioner Rodgers wants owners to have more say over their own parking lots and generally favors more, not fewer, microbusinesses; Commissioner Harlock said he could live with two food trucks at Menke Park rather than the proposed cap of one.

Staff is recommending the Commission forward the whole package to the Town Council as drafted. Separately, and much more quietly, the same hearing will consider a paperwork fix at 125 Baltimore Avenue to legalize a decades-old duplex — no physical changes, no comment received.