✿Larkspur Daily
Thursday, November 20, 2025 · Issue No. 27
Parks and Recreation Commission · meeting of Thursday, Nov 20

Commission endorses $250,000 pocket park at base of Arch Street steps

At the base of the Arch Street steps, on a vacant city-owned parcel and the adjoining Magnolia Avenue right-of-way, the Larkspur Community Foundation wants to build a pocket park: a raised plaza, native plantings, an accessible ramp, benches, and an upgraded bus shelter. The foundation came to the Parks and Recreation Commission Thursday night asking not for money but for a blessing — an endorsement it can carry to the City Council in January.

“The purpose of the meeting tonight is to get your feedback on the idea of there being a pocket park in this location. It's never been used as a park.”— Julian Skinner, Public Works Director

Public Works Director Julian Skinner framed the night's job narrowly. "The purpose of the meeting tonight is to get your feedback on the idea of there being a pocket park in this location," he said. "It's never been used as a park." His recommendation: if commissioners think a park belongs there, support adding it to the city's five-year Capital Improvement Program as an unfunded project, pending future design and funding. LCF President Laura Anderson was equally direct: "Our objective this evening is to secure the commission's recommendation to present this mini park concept to the city council in January with the ultimate goal to add it to the city's five-year capital improvement program."

Board member Alicia Alexander put the price tag at roughly $250,000, with $30,000 in seed money already banked and plans to raise the rest through the annual Rose Bowl dance, adopt-a-bench and named bricks. Chair Baxter was skeptical that the number would hold, pointing to the city's own track record on the new library and recreation building — a $12 million library, he noted, that's coming in at 19. Another commissioner worried that the wide stairwells feeding directly onto Magnolia Avenue could let children run into traffic, invoking past fencing fights at Niven park. Landscape designer Jenny Tippet said the design tries to hold both concerns at once: narrowing the stairs too much, she said, makes the space less welcoming, and the goal is a place transit riders, coffee drinkers, runners and parade spectators all want to use. One commissioner floated a revenue angle — purposeful overflow seating for nearby cafes like Equator.

The commission voted 4-0 to support the concept and recommend it move through the City Council process as a park project under Parks & Rec purview. Next stop: the council, in January.

Meeting video
Parks and Recreation Commission · meeting of Thursday, Nov 20

Utility-box art wraps stall on a policy that says one meeting in one place and two in another

Lee Stern, also of the Larkspur Community Foundation, asked the commission to approve vinyl art wraps on traffic utility boxes at Bon Air and Magnolia and at Ward Street and Magnolia, near the Marin Racquet Club. The images would reproduce work by local artists Kay Carlson — a painting of Mt. Tamalpais — and Niz Brown, a floral clematis design. LCF would fully fund the project, following the model of an earlier wrap at Magnolia and Ward.

“I would make a motion that we put this item over to the next committee... while we figure out our housekeeping.”— Commissioner Capel, moving to postpone

Nobody objected to the art. The problem was the paperwork. Staff said the application had already been reviewed by the City Manager for liability, and that the commission's job was concept approval. But Commissioner Capel noted the city's art policy "talks about the importance of community outreach... there must be two meetings of the parks commission," and asked whether Thursday was merely the first of two. Another commissioner then found conflicting language elsewhere in the same document: one section calls for a minimum of one public meeting plus three letters of support; another cites two meetings.

Commissioner Fidell asked whether the installations have a defined lifespan and requested that future packets include the actual application materials, redactions and all. An audience member, a former Rena Studios executive director, praised the idea as a way to remind citizens of their artists.

The commission voted unanimously to hold the item. "I would make a motion that we put this item over to the next committee... while we figure out our housekeeping," Capel said. It returns at the next meeting.

Meeting video

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