City Council · hearing Tuesday, Sept 16
After a Marathon Hearing, Council Clears the Mount Tam Racket Club Teardown-and-Rebuild
The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to deny an appeal and uphold the Planning Commission's approval of applicant Mark Harris's plan to demolish the existing Mount Tam Racket Club at One Larkspur Plaza Drive and rebuild it from scratch. The approved project calls for 14 new structures totaling 10,750 square feet, eight clay tennis courts, a reduced-size pool, and 77 parking spaces, and had already cleared design review, height and fence exceptions, heritage tree removal, and grading approval before appellant Dr. Howard Orman brought it back to the council.
“We are the community of Mount Tam Racket Club and we are currently 900 strong... this plan is not inclusive of our community... we feel like we've been thrown under the bus.”— Jillian Catsel, Mount Tam Racket Club member
Orman and dozens of club members argued the redesign should have required an amended conditional use permit and fails longtime members — no indoor or covered courts, no larger pool, no gym equipment — while shortchanging sea level rise planning. "We are the community of Mount Tam Racket Club and we are currently 900 strong... this plan is not inclusive of our community... we feel like we've been thrown under the bus," member Jillian Catsel told the council. Not everyone backed the appeal: resident Tommy Lehman called relitigating a unanimously approved project "an abuse of the process."
City staff reminded the council it could review the record with fresh eyes, and senior planner Alex Oon noted a private club has no obligation to serve the public. Council Member Wee acknowledged "there is loss" for longtime members but also gain for others, and Mayor Andre found the project not detrimental to the surrounding area before the council voted 5-0 to deny the appeal, closing out a fight that had run since the Planning Commission's original sign-off.
City Council · presentation Sept 16; RVSD to present Oct 7, item may return around Oct 21
Marina and Riviera Circle Residents Tell Council: We're Not Ready for This Winter's King Tides
Public Works Director Julian Skinner briefed the council on the city's plan for an anticipated El Niño winter, naming the Larkspur Marina/Riviera Circle, Larkspur Plaza Drive, and Redwood Highway/101 corridor as the top flood risks. The plan includes pump station upgrades, new 6-inch pumps and a generator, county-coordinated temporary Tiger/Gator flood barriers, sandbag stations, and public alerts through Alert Marin and Nixle — but no vote was taken, and no big fixes are coming before November.
“Telling us we're about to flood is not flood protection. One pump for 160 homes is not flood protection. Might buy barriers is not a plan. It's a hope.”— Gabby Pavish, Riviera Circle resident
Residents still recovering from January's flooding weren't reassured. Cory Burken described "about a foot of water in the garage" and damage under his house, saying the presentation itself "got me really scared." Lewis Tan of the Larkspur Marina Property Association warned that pumps alone won't help once Corte Madera Creek overtops its banks — "we need those drains cleaned" — and residents pushed for gate repairs, bigger pumps, barriers, and further flood studies before the November King Tide.
City officials were blunt about the limits of what's achievable this season. Skinner explained that without proper berms, pumping flooded streets back into the creek just "moves water in a circle," and City Manager Schwarz said the real fix is "a big expensive long-term solution" that won't arrive this winter. A Central Marin police captain urged residents to prepare to be self-sufficient rather than count on first responders in a widespread event. The mayor promised a staff report on five specific resident requests, with the Ross Valley Sanitary District presenting October 7 and the issue likely returning to council around October 21.
Larkspur Library Board · meeting of September 14
Record Checkouts Are Jamming the Library — and It Has No Backup Plan If the Power Goes Out
The Library Board learned August was the busiest month on record, with 11,500 items checked out, up from 10,500 in July — a surge that's overwhelmed the self-service hold locker outside the building, now running at roughly triple capacity, with patrons also struggling to read the checkout screen in direct sun. On staffing, the library is close to filling two long-vacant assistant positions after screening more than 200 applicants, with expanded evening and Monday hours possible by early 2027 if hiring goes smoothly.
“Our computer system was down for checkout last Thursday for like four hours and we could check out through barcode... we typed it all in Excel.”— Library Director, describing last week's outage
The board also opened a harder conversation about resilience: the library runs on solar panels but has no battery backup or generator, and members debated whether, in a blackout, it should try to function as a normal library or simply serve as a warm, lit shelter. The question isn't hypothetical — a citywide computer outage knocked out the checkout system for four hours the week before, forcing staff to log loans by hand. "Our computer system was down for checkout last Thursday for like four hours and we could check out through barcode... we typed it all in Excel," the director told the board. A citywide meeting on generator priorities and flood response was set for the very next day, as officials across Larkspur head into fall bracing for El Niño.
Separately, the board finalized a tiered policy for its new slat-wall display — library and city programs first, then partner nonprofits like the Friends, Foundation and Commons, with voter registration materials carved out as an exception to the no-political-materials rule — and set October 19 as the target date for a joint meeting with those three support groups.