Since taking office in December, Mayor Stephanie Andre has tackled a variety of issues, from January’s flooding to March’s opening of the new library. 

The mayor joined our LCF meeting in one of the new library’s conference rooms last week to discuss what’s on her agenda right now.  She also gave an update on key projects, including the Lucky grocery store, City Hall, Serenity apartments, local fire stations and her idea for a “dream” project. 

A New Grocery Store Downtown

The Lucky space is one of my top priorities. 

One of the challenges is that Albertsons is unlikely to rent to a competing grocery store because they own Safeway in Corte Madera. So even though our community wants it to be a market, it will likely not be a market again if Albertsons retains ownership of the building.

Albertsons owns only the former Lucky’s building and a portion of the parking lot, not the gas station or the strip mall in the same center. There have been developers who are very interested in redeveloping the entire area, but overtures to the other owners to sell or collaborate have been unsuccessful so far. 

In the interim, while the Lucky site is still in limbo and vacant, I’m talking to vendors about bringing a farmer’s market to downtown Larkspur one or two times a week. I would like to do something that generates more economic activity and foot traffic there to help all downtown businesses, and increase options for places for the kids to go during lunch or after school.

Mixed Use Development of the Former Lucky Site

The former Lucky’s shopping area is ripe for redevelopment. I think that is especially apparent with the opening of the new library directly adjacent to it. I think it’s very natural that this will be the next area to receive investment. 

There are developers who are very interested in the site but it’s difficult because these projects are all about density in making the numbers work from a financial perspective. 

When these projects ultimately come forward, there are potentially competing objectives the community is going to have to grapple with: If we want the grocery store, the grocery store needs a minimum amount of density to support the business.  We’re not likely to get another 30,000 square-foot grocery store in that spot—it’s going to be a lot smaller. But even a smaller store will need a certain density to support it.

Plans for Renovating City Hall

Catherine Way and I have been working on the future plans for our historic City Hall building.  We would like to convene a City Hall Citizens Advisory Committee comprised of locals with architectural, real estate, finance, legal and historic preservation backgrounds to help research and advise on this decision. 

The City has already commissioned a 250-page report on our options for City Hall, so we need a group with some level of specialized expertise to really understand and evaluate the options. We also need to do more public outreach and review the 100 surveys that were filled out by citizens on their desires for the space. The objective is to narrow down the options, incorporate public feedback and chart a path forward. 

We are also interested in figuring out whether we could do a private-public partnership like we did with the new library, and identify someone who’s interested in spearheading that effort.  Identifying funding sources will be a key driver of success for this project and a critical objective of the Citizens Advisory Committee.

Serenity Apartments Back on the Property Tax Rolls

Serenity at Larkspur is a 342-unit apartment building in Larkspur Landing. It was bought by a governmental entity, a Joint Powers Authority (JPA), in 2020 and given a property tax exemption to run an affordable housing program for middle-income tenants.

When I joined the city council in 2024, we discovered the owner was not hitting their affordable rental targets or meeting their financial goals. In fact, the income qualified tenants were paying higher rents than the people who were not income qualified, and the city was subsidizing this through the property tax exemption.

The discovery caused Larkspur to withdraw from the JPA, which served as a catalyst that eventually resulted in the sale of the property to a market-rate apartment operator. The transaction closed in March. 

As a result, the city will be able to collect property taxes once again. This will bring about $400,000 a year back into our coffers, which is good because we have a structural deficit—it’s a small one, but over time, we don’t want to draw down our reserves, and so it will be nice to see some of that revenue come back.

The new owners have renamed the property, Finch at Larkspur. I will be meeting with them to talk about their transition plan and what the impact might be on our residents. The city implemented rent control a couple years ago, which means they can only raise the rent a maximum of 7% a year.

Fire Station Renovations

Central Marin Fire is currently facing a significant infrastructure challenge, as four local fire stations—two in Larkspur and two in Corte Madera—require approximately $60-$90 million for essential renovations or total reconstruction. 

While the Magnolia Avenue station is a primary concern, a commissioned report suggests a major strategic shift in Corte Madera: consolidating its two existing stations into a single, centralized facility, potentially located on Tamalpais Drive and Madera Blvd.

Moving forward, the council must resolve critical hurdles regarding funding, as no budget currently exists for these “huge projects,” as well as the logistical complexities of land acquisition if they choose to relocate rather than update the current sites.

The fire council is going to have to discuss the plan and how we secure that funding.  These are large, expensive projects so it will take time to review the options. 

A Dream Project

I’d like to look into improving the bike path that runs behind Trader Joe’s. As you know, bicyclists going through that area must take Redwood Highway which is a busy frontage road. I believe bicyclists and walkers would prefer a more scenic, safer route along the water that could connect to the recently improved trail just north of that shopping center. 

The area is a SMART right-of-way and also part of Corte Madera’s jurisdiction, so it would take some negotiating to work out. And of course, there is no funding for it right now but a trail there would be a great improvement—a dream project, for sure.