Five delinquent code cases become liens on the tax roll; one owner gets a $2,900 break

The week's hardest hour of government happened Wednesday night, when the Council took up unpaid code enforcement fines at five addresses — 259 Madrona Avenue, 10 Post Street, 11 Locust Avenue, 212 Riviera Circle and 75 Via Barona — with account balances running from $7,836.00 to $85,366.94. The item had been continued from April 15 so staff could redo the math; they came back having found a commercial-versus-residential rate misapplied and late fees improperly compounded. The Council voted 5-0 to confirm the record of costs and place the amounts as special assessments and liens on the county tax bills, with two exceptions.

“I never received any of this stuff till the 11th hour. And then we thought it went away.”— Wallace Baldwin, co-owner of 259 Madrona Avenue

At 259 Madrona Avenue, staff laid out unresolved short-term rental and building and life-safety violations — unpermitted electrical, plumbing, a water heater — dating to 2014, along with 45 documented attempts to reach the owners. Co-owner Wallace Baldwin told the Council he'd never seen the paperwork. Council Member Wei said 45 interactions justified the numbers; Vice Mayor Pollson said Madrona Canyon is among the most important areas in town to protect from fire hazard and that she saw no miscalculation. The full amount stood.

The single reduction went to 11 Locust Avenue, where the owner produced an email trail from a former community development director indicating citations would be waived. Staff said records had been lost and it couldn't verify the email — but didn't dispute it likely existed. The city attorney framed the test for the Council: "It's the effect that it has on the person receiving the email, and what a reasonable person would think after receiving an email like that." Council Member Kandell moved to drop the 91-plus-day late fee, a $2,900 reduction, contingent on the owner obtaining a business license within 30 days. Roughly $21,200 stands.

Two appeals failed on the same reasoning. David Pinkasov, a son of the owner at 10 Post Street — an elevated garage and retaining wall built without permits — asked the Council "to consider maybe reducing and waving the accumulated late fees and penalty portions of the assessment." Mayor Andre said that in fairness to owners who paid their fines and fixed their violations, he came down on the side of assessing. At 75 Via Barona, Josh Goslinger, who bought in 2024 knowing about an illegal basement unit, said "my goal here is not to complain, but to get to a remedy"; Council Member Margules replied that the owners knew the demolition was required and waited for final plans. 212 Riviera Circle was continued to June 17 after owner Joseph Seedler said illness kept him away. The city attorney noted the stakes plainly: this is the final administrative step, and after it, review means going to court.

Six months of scaffolding on Magnolia, and the merchants underneath it have had enough

Before the Council got to its agenda, a run of downtown business owners and one longtime resident took the microphone about construction scaffolding and awning that has stayed up on a Magnolia-area building since November — shading storefronts, narrowing the sidewalk, and making the block look closed. Businesses at 483 Magnolia Boulevard were among those named.

“I'm going to go out of business having said nothing.”— Sarah Harrison, downtown merchant

Sarah Harrison described what it's done to her shop: "I have no visibility and the overall aesthetic of the building is impacting my very expensive absolutely fabulous store." Alex Berisov said the effect spreads to neighbors: "It impedes the light and it doesn't do anything for the rest of us. Customers are not happy. Looks like those businesses are closed." Resident Brenda Macauen raised a safety concern and asked for a spot on the calendar: "I saw a blind man walking through there having terrible difficulty because it was jamming up in all the plywood and stuff... I would like to ask the city council to maybe put this on the next agenda."

Mayor Andre said the city is aware of the situation and that the Council cannot formally respond to comments made during open time, but that staff would reach out and continue conversations with the property owner. The nearest thing to a formal venue is the Council's June 17 workshop on tools for addressing vacant properties — a session where, staff noted, no decisions will be made.

A fourth swing at a $4 million Redwood Highway bikeway — and 400 signatures for a bike park

Public Works Director Julian Skinner asked commissioners Thursday to bless the city's fourth attempt at a state Active Transportation Program grant for a roughly $4 million project on Redwood Highway from Wornum Drive north to the city limits: a Class 4 separated two-way cycle track and widened sidewalk on the east side, a new full traffic signal at the Trader Joe's/Cost Plus driveway interconnected with the Industrial signal, and new sidewalk north past Rich Street. The design keeps scoring well and losing anyway — "it's a gap closure, so it scores very high. It's a separated bike facility, so it scores very high," Skinner said — but Larkspur has no recognized "communities of concern," which drags the application down on federally linked criteria. The commission's motion of support passed unanimously; the application is due at the end of June.

“A bike park here would help turn today's riders into tomorrow's world champions.”— Will, student rider, addressing the Parks and Recreation Commission

Commissioners pushed on the ground itself, noting the coming El Niño winter, and Skinner didn't dress it up: another king tide like January's would put the corridor underwater again. Asked whether ferry-bound cyclists would even use the new facility, he shrugged at Magnolia Avenue, where riders still choose the street over the Class 1 path — "Perfectly legal."

Earlier in the night, a line of young riders and a coach from the Larkspur Canyon Devo and Redwood High mountain bike teams asked for something simpler: a place on a future agenda for a dedicated bike park. Coach Rob Webb said they've collected more than 400 petition signatures. Todd Law, an eighth-grader, said Larkspur has a deep bench of young riders but few places for kids to safely build skills close to home.

The reception was warm. One commissioner — a mountain biking club founder — said he'd like the group to come talk officially: "I would very much like to see that bike group agenda at some point, however we process that." The chair suggested a smaller working conversation first, since finding enough land probably makes this a joint effort with Corte Madera — perhaps the chair, the Public Works Director, and a commissioner from each city. Staff will follow up on scheduling.

A $50,000 experiment gets a nod: the electric mower travels from Monday's workshop to Wednesday's budget

Monday's special Climate Action Forum was a workshop, not a voting meeting, but one item from its spreadsheet made it into the city's budget by Wednesday. Staff proposed spending $45,000 to $50,000 of existing climate CIP funds on a Greenworks Optimus Z 72-inch electric ride-on mower to replace the gas mowers at Piper Park, keeping gas units as backup — "it would be an experiment. It'd be a $50,000 experiment," staffer Shannon told the Forum. JJ Andre urged buying in bulk with other jurisdictions and warned that city maintenance crews must be able to fix the thing themselves; David Mer wanted emissions data per dollar from the vendor. Katie Stro Hutton argued it's one of the few items on the list with an immediate emissions cut and real communication value. Two nights later, the Council gave consensus direction to pursue the mower at roughly $40,000 using climate initiative funds.

“This runs, after taxes etc., around $45,000... it would be an experiment. It'd be a $50,000 experiment.”— Shannon, city staff, presenting the mower pilot to the Climate Action Forum

The rest of Wednesday's budget direction: unfreeze a planning position, hold a $50,000 placeholder for a consultant to run community outreach on library and recreation priorities, and program but not yet transfer a $250,000 OPEB trust contribution, revisiting in spring 2027. Community Development Director Andrew Mogensson framed the staffing case with a comparison: Larkspur sits in the "limited" service tier at 5 full-time employees, the lowest among comparable cities, against Corte Madera's roughly 10, while state mandates and permit volume climb. The city manager said the city is probably on the cusp of a five-plus-year permitting peak and it may be time to bring work in-house instead of sending it to consultants.

Public Works Director Julian Skinner made the mirror-image argument: "Every little project that you see that we celebrate finishing a capital improvement program is another thing that's going to have to be maintained." His department is near "standard" staffing but trending lower as infrastructure grows, with storm response and mandated programs like NPDES and sign retro-reflectivity ahead.

Also on the Forum's list: an enforcement fix for Larkspur's nine-year-old gas leaf blower ban, which currently runs through police dispatch. Lenny O'Brien pitched an online system where residents submit a photo of a landscaping crew at an address and the city mails the property owner a warning, then a $50 fine. Staff will consult San Rafael's model and flagged a second gap — since 2017 several neighbors have adopted full bans, while Larkspur still exempts multifamily and commercial properties. The transient occupancy tax, Chamber discussion and full CIP review all move to the June 3 budget hearing.