Planning Commission · meeting Tuesday, Aug 11
Food Truck Fight Boils Over as Commission Advances Commercial Code Overhaul
The Planning Commission voted 4-0 Tuesday to recommend a sweeping rewrite of the town's commercial rules — but not before a parade of restaurant owners protested keeping a food truck permanently anchored at Mankey Park.
“You mentioned rent of 50 cents a square foot for a food truck... I pay four or five thousand dollars a month for just over 800 square feet. Food trucks are unfair competition to existing brick-and-mortar restaurants.”— Robert Valentino, owner of Stefano's Pizza
The Commercial Code Modernization Project updates Title 12 and Title 18 to overhaul parking ratios and shared-parking rules, outdoor dining and display, temporary use permits, sidewalk vending, and a new permanent micro-business program allowing vendors at Mankey Park, Town Park, San Clemente Park and in the public right-of-way. It also rezones 2 Tamalpais Drive from R2 to C1. Commissioners tacked on two changes before voting: a canopy tree required for every 10 parking spaces, and a new conditional use permit specifically for the Mankey Park food truck.
Brick-and-mortar owners lined up against the food truck provision. Tommy Guerrero of Kiko's Taco Shop said it's taken him three years to build his business and warned that more trucks nearby, paying lower fees than storefronts, would siphon off customers. A salon owner near Mankey Park said double-parked customers and poor sightlines around the truck have created real safety hazards, including a near-miss with an elderly client. Not everyone objected — Amy Hughes pitched a coffee-and-baked-goods micro-business at Mankey Park as a community gathering spot, and Frederick Stagbrook, representing a food trailer, pushed back on the idea that trucks can simply roll away, citing the same permitting and fees storefronts face.
Chair Chase said that even without occupying a parking space directly, a Mankey Park micro-business draws customer traffic that eats into parking and raises safety concerns on Montecito Avenue — and that he'd have voted against keeping the food truck there if it had come up as its own question. The ordinance now heads to the Town Council for a final vote.
Flood Control Board · meeting Monday, Aug 10
Board Wins $125K Grant for Marina Village Berm, But Members Say the Clock Is Running
The Flood Control Board accepted a $125,000 grant Monday from the Marin Community Foundation's sea-level-rise small-grants pilot, which combined with the town's already-budgeted 1:1 match will fund 13 months of preliminary engineering — surveying, an environmental constraints memo, geotechnical work and design concepts — for raising the Marina Village flood berm.
“I went last Friday the 7th to get a couple of sandbags in preparation for the current high tides. I did not see any sand or bags at the station in the front or the side by the post office. Very disappointing.”— Rita Perry, Golden Passage resident, in an email read into the record · ▶ Watch this exchange
Board members welcomed the money but pushed for a bigger picture. Staff said design work alone runs $1.5 to $1.8 million, with a full construction estimate as high as $10 million floated informally — numbers members said make it hard to plan without a firmer timeline. One member asked for even a rough five-to-seven-year target just to have, as they put it, a north star, and warned that the town shouldn't let more king tides pass without a clearer funding plan.
Ahead of winter, short-term fixes are further along: sandbag stockpiling near Paradise Pump Station is nearly complete and physical barriers are in place in Mariner Cove, with a flood-preparedness fair planned for October. But gaps remain — a Golden Passage resident wrote in that she found no sand or bags at the station near the post office during last week's high tides, and a board member suggested adding warning signage after cars drove through a saltwater barricade overnight.
Longer term, Marin County has stood up a new Climate and Sustainability Division under Chief Climate Officer Nadia Citram to coordinate a state-mandated Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan due by 2034 across Corte Madera, San Rafael, Larkspur and Belvedere. The board called it the most momentum on flood planning in nearly two decades, but agreed it needs a concrete plan for sandbagging and berm overtopping in place before the next round of king tides.