295 Magnolia's awning clears the Heritage Board — as long as it isn't fuchsia

The owner of the Backstage Wine building at 295 Magnolia Avenue came to the Heritage Preservation Board seeking a blessing for a permanent awning of roughly 532 square feet over the front patio, replacing the temporary pop-up canopy currently doing the job. The building sits inside the Downtown Historic District, though the structure itself is not on the city's historic inventory — which is why the board's role here was advisory.

“As long as it's not like the current easy-up white tent that's such a glaring white color that they have now.”— Heritage Preservation Board member, on the color condition

Staff asked the board to take public comment and forward a recommendation of approval to the Planning Commission, noting the awning's lowest point would sit 8 feet 8 inches above grade and that the fire department is still reviewing the fabric for fire-code compliance.

Nobody on the board objected to the structure. The entire discussion was about color. One member said the current pop-up was the real eyesore; another conceded the existing setup "is not something that catches my eye going up and down the road... many times. Now if it were some garish color, that would be a different story" — a concern a colleague boiled down to two words: "Fuchsia pink or something."

The vote was 3-0 to recommend approval, conditioned on a muted, earth-toned color compatible with surrounding buildings. It now goes to the Planning Commission.

Five more history markers get the go-ahead — paid for out of two different pockets

With the first five markers already in the ground, board member Marilyn walked colleagues through draft text and photos for five new historical markers: Baltimore Canyon Park, a boardwalk/houseboat community, Piper Park, the Bon Air Hotel and art colony on Corte Madera Creek, and the Greenbrae brickyard and quarry site. The board reached consensus — no formal vote — to go back to fabricator KBO at the same price as the first batch, about $20,595.51.

“I love that. The quote really snags your interest right there.”— Heritage Preservation Board member, on draft marker text

The money comes from two places: roughly $23,000 remaining in the city's marker account and the $26,496.37 Larkspur History Fund held by the Larkspur Community Foundation, started by Helen Highcamp. Staff said the spending falls within the City Manager's authority and required no board motion, but suggested "it may be cleaner to have KBO invoice two separate amounts to the two entities," and will check whether the City Council needs to formally accept the foundation gift.

Loose ends remain. Placement has to be coordinated with Public Works over buried utilities; the Remillard shoreline site needs BCDC review; and some historic photos are hard to read. "I was wondering if there would be a way to add a little dot or arrow," one member said of the shoreline image, "since there's no building, just shoreline." A member also flagged that the creek was straightened by the Army Corps in 1965, so Boardwalk One's location relative to the water needs more research.

One flourish didn't survive the archives: Marilyn found no photo the city has permission to use from the 1971 filming of <i>Dirty Harry</i> at what is now Larkspur Landing. The workaround floated was a single sentence plus a QR code pointing to a map and to pages of "Larkspur Past and Present" online.

A Coast Miwok acknowledgment stalls before it starts: 'I'm backing off this one big time'

The week's most human moment came when a board member reported on an effort to add signage acknowledging Coast Miwok history alongside the marker program — and explained why she was abandoning it. Outreach ran into conflicting claims over who speaks for the tribe's history, between a representative named Jason Desler and a contact at the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria.

“I'm backing off this one big time. I'm not getting into this at all — they're getting into the tribes.”— Heritage Preservation Board member, on the stalled Coast Miwok signage

"He said, 'Do you want to put up the true history?' And I thought, uh oh," she recounted. Her conclusion was blunt. A colleague added that the disappointing part is that the goal was informative, not controversial — the sort of acknowledgment offered at the opening of any ceremony.

There is already a partial answer sitting outside: a bronze marker placed in 1972 on a stone near the old Lucky Shopping Center acknowledging the Coast Miwok. It has tarnished green and is now unreadable. A member asked whether Public Works could simply clean it — which may be the only Coast Miwok signage Larkspur gets this round.