Staff pitches $3 million for trash capture and $2 million toward a pump station Larkspur would build with Corte Madera
The one substantive piece of city business this week came Monday, when the Sales Tax Measures Citizens' Oversight Committee took up a City Manager memo laying out how staff would like to spend Measure B and Measure G money in Fiscal Year 2026-27. The single biggest line is $3,000,000 for storm drain trash capture equipment. The most interesting one is smaller: $2,000,000 as Larkspur's anticipated share of a pump station replacement near Cost Plus Plaza, built jointly with the Town of Corte Madera.
That Cost Plus Plaza idea is worth watching, because it would replace two separate stand-alone pump stations with a single larger one serving both jurisdictions — if a shared project proves feasible. Staff describes the $2 million as an expected contribution, not a fixed price, which is the kind of language that tends to move once engineering catches up with the concept.
The rest of the Measure B list is operational: $256,882 to Central Marin Fire for lease payments and command vehicle purchases, $160,000 to Central Marin Police for EV fleet replacement, and $500,000 parked in a "shovel ready" grant-matching account for projects including Magnolia Avenue and Old Redwood Highway — money whose whole purpose is to be ready when outside grants appear. Staff also recommends holding $1 million of Measure B in reserve for debt service, per committee policy.
Measure G is the neighborhood-scale fund: $31,250 for street sweeping, $30,000 for tree trimming, and $15,000 for a Neighborhood Response Group mini-grant program, with most of the remaining balance steered toward replacing the Larkspur Plaza Drive pump station and flood wall — a proposed $1,500,000 commitment now and another $1,000,000 anticipated later. For scale on how these commitments accumulate: the committee's own financial summary shows the Heatherwood Pump Station project drew a $1,599,000 Measure B commitment approved on March 2, 2023, three years ago to the day. Larkspur, in other words, is spending its sales tax measures mostly on keeping water out.