Business tax overhaul heads for the November ballot amid a flood of resident mail

Council spent Tuesday night weighing a resolution to place a measure on the November 3, 2026 ballot revising Chapter 5.04 of the municipal code, the city's business license tax. The rewrite would add new tax categories for maritime and general-service businesses, spell out how mixed-activity businesses get classified, and hand the Council authority to reduce rates administratively without going back to voters each time.

No staff recommendation was listed on the item itself — it was presented for Council to weigh in on before deciding whether to send it to the ballot. What wasn't ambiguous was the public interest: 36 residents and business owners wrote in, from Scott Robinson and Evan Jane Kriss to Linda Pfeifer, Jann Johnson and dozens more, making it by far the most-commented item of the week.

The record doesn't capture what each letter said, but the volume alone signals a business community and residency watching closely how their tax bills might change. If Council adopted the resolution, the measure is now bound for the fall ballot; if not, staff needed further direction before the filing deadline.

Crosswalk parking bans on Caledonia Street draw a wave of neighbor letters

Also on Tuesday's agenda: how to implement Assembly Bill 413 on Caledonia Street, the state law requiring clear sightlines by banning parking near marked and unmarked crosswalks. Staff brought design alternatives and possible changes to municipal code section 10.40.120, but no specific recommendation — Council was asked for direction, not a final vote.

Ten residents and couples along the corridor wrote in, including Michelle Molkalla, Patti Frazier, Teri Lang, Angela Johansen, the Elmensdorps and the Gaetanis. Their letters weren't quoted in the record, but the turnout points to real anxiety about losing curbside spots on a street where parking is already tight.

Because Council was only asked for direction, the design options — and any code changes — could still shift based on what residents said Tuesday night, with a formal decision presumably still ahead.

A crumbling shared staircase gets fixed — after commissioners untangle decades of mismatched addresses

At 22 Alexander Avenue, applicant Kai Okada, representing owner Timothy Isaac, sought a Nonconformity Permit to demolish and fully replace the aging wooden staircase, landings, rails and lighting serving five residences — 14, 16, 18/24, 20 and 22 Alexander Avenue — and to encase four existing concrete piles in a new mud slab while rebuilding the deck at No. 22. Staff found the project categorically exempt from CEQA and consistent with the city's nonconformity findings; the commission voted 5-0 to approve, with conditions requiring later sign-off from BCDC and the flood zone administrator.

“This is like the most Sausalito story. I love it. It's funky.”— Chair Saad, after the 5-0 vote to approve · ▶ Watch this exchange

Getting there took some untangling. Commissioner Luxembourg pressed staff on why No. 24 wasn't listed in the application and why the owner of No. 16 hadn't signed off; planner Matthew Mandich explained the county assessor still lists the parcels under old numbers, and that the No. 16 owner — who rents the property out and isn't reliably in the country — simply couldn't be reached. Applicant Pete Peterson told the commission the project had been "quite a complicated process" and that the old materials couldn't simply be replaced in-kind given the stiffness the stairway needs.

Chair Saad, casting one of the five yes votes, seemed almost delighted by the tangle of addresses and absent landlords that make up the shared staircase — a fitting note for a project that had taken this long just to get in front of the commission.

Sidewalks, oversized signs and a shelved parklet rulebook: commissioners push back at Public Works

Before the staircase vote, commissioners spent most of Tuesday's meeting grilling Public Works Director Kevin McGowan, Principal Planner Matthew Mandich and Parking Manager Wayne Kwan on three years of loose ends — mismatched sidewalks, oversized street signs, and a parklet design rulebook that's been 80% finished since 2023 and never moved.

“We could have done better by adding more lamp black into it and putting a sand finish on it. That's what I probably would have done if I paid more attention to this and wasn't busy with other stuff.”— Public Works Director Kevin McGowan · ▶ Watch this exchange

The sidewalk talk turned tense when Commissioner Moore pressed on why the sidewalk outside Smitty's was repaved without matching the distinctive Mexican-pebble finish required near Bridgeway, leaving a visible patch from emergency tree work. McGowan conceded the mismatch was avoidable but bristled at the line of questioning, prompting Chair Saad to step in and ask everyone to keep the exchange "informative" rather than adversarial.

On parking, Kwan confirmed residents parking after 6 p.m. without a permit in the C zone — created in 2023 amid merchant-resident friction — are now ticketed, a fact Commissioner Luxembourg said still catches people off guard. Similar friction surfaced over oversized pedestrian-safety signage on the Bridgeway median between Napa and Johnson streets; Luxembourg pushed for smaller signs, but McGowan said the 2023 safety fix was rushed through without time to think about wayfinding, and cost has kept it on the shelf ever since.

The parklet rulebook fared no better. Mandich said the draft guidelines are "about 80% of the way there" and could be finished quickly if directed — but with the housing element eating staff time and, in his words, uncertainty over whether "the juice" is "worth the squeeze" given limited demand, commissioners opted not to restart the effort, focusing instead on bringing existing parklets like the one on Caledonia Street into compliance.