Library board debates whether new fees are pricing community groups out of meeting rooms
It was a quiet week for Larkspur city business, with the Library Board's Monday session carrying the week's real substance. Much of the meeting was spent hashing out a new rental policy for the library's three meeting rooms: a $25 non-refundable reservation fee for all users, a $100 setup fee for theater-style seating in the large room, and hourly rates of $50 for the medium room, $125 for the large room, and $30 for the small room, with waivers for government bodies and Larkspur-serving nonprofits. Insurance would be required only for the large room, Room 2.
Board members weren't fully sold on the details. Some questioned whether renters should really forfeit their deposit if the city cancels a booking, and worried the rate structure could quietly shut out smaller community groups. The Library Director told the board a writers' group had inquired about a recurring monthly booking in the large room that would have run about $750 — and simply vanished once they saw the fee schedule, never following up.
One member floated a sliding-scale fix: charge more for the first hour, less for each one after, to keep rooms from sitting empty while still leaving room for budget-conscious groups like writers' clubs or student tutoring sessions. Staff will now clarify that insurance applies only to Room 2, fix page-numbering errors in the application packet, strip out ambiguous language about alcohol being 'sold' at events, and revisit the whole fee structure in December once they can see which groups the costs are actually scaring off.
Beyond the fee fight, the library reported real momentum: four new part-time pages have already cleared a backlog at the book drop, and recruitment is underway for two full-time Library Assistant positions that staff hope will finally support six-day-a-week service, likely by late fall or early winter. A Friends of the Library book sale lands Sunday, August 23, even as staff wrestle with chronic parking overcapacity — made worse by Corte Madera's library construction closure — and heavy demand for the outdoor book locker.