✿Sausalito Daily
The Week in Sausalito · September 13 – September 19, 2026
City Council · meeting of Tuesday, Sept 15

Council Rushes $250,000 in Emergency Funds to Gate 5 Road Ahead of Winter Floods

With a 'Super El Nino' winter and king tides looming — county officials warned they're expected right on top of Thanksgiving and Christmas/New Year's — staff asked the council to pull $250,000 from the city's emergency reserve to fund near-term flood mitigation in the Gate 5 Road / Varda Landing area: raising Varda Landing Circle, designing a tide gate system, renting temporary pumps, and starting engineering on a permanent pump station, in partnership with property owners who've offered to kick in funding and materials.

“We are really facing... you're looking at an emergency here. This isn't something we need to study and do more studies. It's something we need to fix in the next 60 days.”— Robert McCullough, engineer and Gate 5 Road tenant · ▶ Watch this exchange

Councilmember Cox pressed staff on whether the city risked 'gifting public funds' by upgrading land it doesn't own, while Vice Mayor Blaustein wanted cost estimates for the tide-gate engineering to help balance the spending. Public Works Director Kevin McGowan noted that removing sediment from the canal wouldn't change flooding characteristics, since water levels there are set by the bay, not storage volume.

Robert McCullough, an engineer and Gate 5 tenant, told the council pumping alone won't save the road and pushed for urgency over more study. Others tied the emergency spending directly to the fall's biggest political fight: Sandra Bushmaker called the flooding 'the folly and irresponsibility of increased building and density envisioned by Measure X,' while Casey Peterson praised the public-private cooperation on display.

The council approved the funding 4-0, amended by Blaustein to prioritize immediate protective measures while pursuing longer-term, WSP-recommended engineering in parallel — a down payment against a winter forecasters say could be unusually severe.

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City Council · public comment, Sept 15 meeting

Pelican Harbor Tenants Describe Fear and New Violations as City Presses Owner

Interim City Manager Phipps told the council the city has sent an audit demand letter to Pelican Harbor's property owners and is awaiting a response before further code-enforcement collaboration. But residents who packed public comment said the problems are getting worse, not better.

“People are scared down there. People are scared to come and speak here... it's just shocking what he's moved in and just sweeping himself around and it's not pretty.”— Alice Merrill, Pelican Harbor resident

Alison Deal reported unpermitted floating docks under construction on the property and said tenants 'discovered that there are three Airbnbs' operating there, including two on sailboats. Andy Greer told the council residents 'deserve to see the city council take some action' after repeated appearances before the body.

Longtime tenants described a climate of intimidation. Alice Merrill said people at the harbor are afraid to even speak publicly about conditions, and Chris Langton warned that 'the spirit of Sausalito is leaving Pelican Harbor,' asking where the city will draw the line.

No formal action was taken, though Mayor Woodside noted the city manager was 'taking notes,' and separately promised a public session on the city's broader code-enforcement shortcomings after a resident cited Bridgeway as another example of the city failing to follow through — a thread that connects Pelican Harbor to complaints about enforcement citywide.

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Sustainability Commission · meeting of September 10

A $3.9 Million Concrete Wave Screen Could Be the Fix for Galilee Harbor's Storm-Battered Docks

At Galilee Harbor on Napa Street, environmental consultants from ESA presented a feasibility study for a fixed vertical concrete wave screen roughly 1,260 feet long, built on city-owned tidelands to protect the harbor's 38-family floating home community and Dunphy Park from wave damage. The design would include a single navigation gap, a bed gap for ecological connectivity, and textured concrete meant to attract oysters and mussels, with the possibility of seal haul-out features built in.

“The preferred alternative is a fixed vertical wave screen located offshore on city-owned lands... It provides meaningful wave reduction, it avoids direct eelgrass impacts, and it offers opportunities for ecological enhancements.”— Michelle Orr, ESA consultant

Staff want to take the presentation to City Council next, seeking support for including the project in the Capital Improvement Program and pursuing grant funding; the effort already has a $150,000 grant from the Marin Community Foundation behind it. Harbor Manager Greg Cornelius told the commission the floating community has lost entire docks — carrying electricity, sewage and water lines — in past storms, making the attenuator a longstanding goal now gaining momentum.

The vertical wall option beat out a floating pontoon attenuator largely on performance and footprint: ESA's Michelle Orr said a floating structure would need to be 20 to 30 feet wide to match the wave protection of a wall just one or two feet wide, and the vertical design also avoids direct eelgrass impacts despite a higher upfront price tag of $3.9 million. A commissioner asked about long-term monitoring commitments for oyster recruitment, wave conditions and sediment shifts that might trigger design changes down the line.

No vote was taken — the commission lacked a quorum — but members agreed the case for protecting low-income floating housing, plus the co-benefits for Dunphy Park erosion, makes a strong pitch for City Council, where the project heads next for a decision on funding and CIP inclusion.

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Zoning Administrator · hearing Sept 15, 2026

Zoning Administrator Grants One-Year Extension for 1755 Bridgeway Condos Over a Dozen Public Comments

At 1755 Bridgeway, applicant Feng Xue sought a one-year extension of a long-approved plan to demolish four residential structures and two accessory buildings and build a new 19-unit condominium complex, with 25% of base units (16 plus 3 density-bonus units) reserved for moderate-income households under state density bonus law. No changes to the approved design were proposed.

“We are here today asking for a one-year extension on the project and with the hope that with that time frame, we can bring back to this city with a construction [plan] that can live up to everyone's expectation.”— Amy Chan, applicant's consultant · ▶ Watch this exchange

Staff recommended approval, finding no change in circumstances that would justify denial, that the applicant has been diligent in pursuing the project, and that the approvals still reflect current city standards. The extension pushes the design review deadline to July 5, 2028 and the encroachment agreement to August 5, 2027.

A dozen residents submitted written comments on the extension, but the Zoning Administrator said the vast majority supported clearing the dilapidated buildings and adding housing, and that the lone more critical letter didn't bear on the narrow findings at issue since the project's design wasn't being relitigated. Applicant consultant Amy Chan said the ownership group has worked on the project for roughly a decade and doesn't want to cut corners on quality despite rising construction, labor, insurance, and financing costs.

The Zoning Administrator approved the extension, adopting Resolution 2026-12 with minor cleanup language to the findings and conditions of approval — buying the project another year to break ground on a site that's sat dormant near downtown for nearly ten years.

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