Empty grocery store drives a vacancy-tax debate — but no November measure

The bulk of Wednesday's council meeting went to a public workshop on what, if anything, Larkspur can do about long-empty commercial buildings — above all the former Lucky's/Albertsons grocery site, with the vacant Bed Bath & Beyond and the North Magnolia shopping center also in the conversation.

“a tiny little pebble in their great big private equity ocean”— the Mayor, on how much Larkspur matters to the site's owners

City Attorney Sky Woodruff laid out two tools: a special vacancy parcel tax, which would need two-thirds voter approval, or a vacant-property registration program with heightened maintenance standards that the council could adopt by ordinance without a vote. He cautioned that a tax written to hit only one or two named properties would likely be legally indefensible, that defining and administering "vacancy" is complicated, and that a tax cannot be structured as a punitive penalty.

Residents came prepared. One commenter, Gan, presented a draft ordinance proposing a $5-per-square-foot vacancy tax, escalating to $10 and $15, aimed at commercial vacancies over 15,000 square feet, arguing the owners are sitting on the old Lucky's site to avoid competing with their nearby Safeway. Don Sommerjory made the same anti-competitive argument. James Holmes offered the other side, recalling that decades ago vacant Larkspur homes were rented to itinerant tenants after the Summer of Love, and warning that forcing occupancy isn't always an improvement.

The mayor noted the property has passed through several private-equity owners — Kingswood Capital, then the Jim Pattison Group — with little reason to care about Larkspur. Council Member Pollson questioned whether the problem is vacancy at all or simply the absence of a grocery store, and the city manager pointed at the downtown specific plan, last updated around 2006, as the deeper issue. No action was taken; staff will bring back a combined downtown-vision and vacancy workshop, with the council acknowledging there is not enough time before the August 7 deadline to put a measure on the November ballot.

Library community rooms: no sales pitches, yes to candidate forums, $25 to clean up

The council unanimously adopted Resolution 5426 setting policies and fees for renting the community rooms at the Larkspur Library, an item held over from June 3. The package keeps staff's tiered hourly rates by room size, applies a $25 cleaning fee to every reservation, and exempts government, library-program, nonprofit and community groups from rental fees. Booking opens 90 days out for the general public, with monthly booking for standing community meetings.

“125 bucks an hour... I'm just feeling ambivalent about charging community groups for a building.”— a council member, during the fee discussion

The knottiest question was political speech. City Attorney Sky Woodruff explained that once the city opens the rooms to some political use, it must stay viewpoint-neutral among all comers — which makes an outright ban the legally simplest path. Council Member Kendell worried that admitting any political group could oblige the city to admit groups espousing hate speech, and preferred a ban for now. The mayor pushed the other way, noting this fall's council election will have multiple candidates for the first time since 2013 and that the city has few other public venues for a forum.

The council landed on allowing political and candidate forums while banning rentals for direct commercial sales and solicitation. Joanne Yaitz, speaking for Toastmasters, thanked the council for remembering her group's request and said she was pleased with the direction.

Farm stand comes downtown — one day a week, nine spaces, $50 a day

After hearing from seven written commenters and more at the podium, the council unanimously approved a scaled-back farm stand pilot in the downtown public parking lot. What began as a two-vendor, two-day proposal using 18 parking spaces shrank to one day per week using 7 to 9 spaces, at a $50-per-day license fee, for a one-year term with a six-month check-in.

Staff had recommended the downtown lot over the library employee lot on visibility grounds — the library lot has no street frontage. One council member argued for a straight six-month trial to measure the effect on downtown merchants and parking before committing longer; the six-month review was folded in instead.

The farmers market piece is on hold. The mayor said vendor Lynn Bagley felt she wouldn't draw enough traffic with schools out and may return in the spring with a plan for the library employee lot. Terry, a Magnolia Avenue resident, asked about using the private walking path behind King of the Roll or Dark Park; the mayor said that property is privately owned and the owner isn't interested, and the bike path is too narrow for the required 10-by-10 tents.