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Marin County events center getting a facelift The Marin County Civic Center is moving toward phase two of its major renovation, with the Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium on track for a 2027 reopening. The civic center’s primary events center has been closed since 2023. The county Board of Supervisors is considering construction contracts to install modern infrastructure and safety enhancements to the 2,000-seat theater, which was conceived in the late 1950s by renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The auditorium first opened in 1971. The board is also looking at recoating and repairing the auditorium’s notable domed roof, reupholstering the auditorium seating and beautifying the surrounding grounds with new landscaping. The county is estimated to spend $18.9 million to renovate the building. “These improvements will help preserve the Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium as a beloved gathering place where the community can continue to enjoy music, theater, and cultural events for generations to come," said county Public Works Director Chris Blunk in a statement. A long-planned seismic retrofit of the building was done in 2024, during which various health, safety and accessibility issues were identified and are being addressed in the current revitalization project.— JW
Proposed measure aims to revamp CEQA Marin NIMBYs are on notice: A potential measure on the November 2026 ballot aims to overhaul CEQA, or the California Environmental Quality Act. The California Chamber of Commerce filed paperwork last month to place a measure on next year’s statewide ballot that would make changes to CEQA in order to streamline planning proposals and make development projects easier to realize. The “Building an Affordable California Act” would create a one-year limit on environmental review for an array of big-ticket projects. Established in 1970, CEQA mandates state and local jurisdictions study and disclose any effects significant new projects have on the environment; environmental impact reports, or EIRs, are produced and project developers must demonstrate how they would offset or mitigate the impacts. EIRs can be costly and time consuming, and have been known to spark litigation that can grind a proposal to a halt for years. Environmentalists laud CEQA as a necessary check-and balance against runaway development; critics say it has evolved over the years as a means to obstruct projects with costly lawsuits, often when environmental questions are nonexistent. A recent example occurred in 2022 when the Tiburon Open Space Committee filed a CEQA challenge to halt a residential subdivision. The court upheld county approval of the project, noting how CEQA was intended to protect the environment, yet can be a “tool of obstruction” against housing projects. The California Chamber of Commerce must gather 546,000 valid signatures by spring in order to qualify the measure for the November ballot.— JW
Tiburon approves nation’s strictest tobacco-sales ban Tiburon is going cold turkey this holiday season—at least, when it comes to the sale of tobacco. The Town Council in November became the first jurisdiction in the nation to ban the sale of tobacco and tobacco-related products, without exemptions. A handful of towns in California have placed bans on the selling of tobacco products, but those offer certain exemptions. Despite the strict nature of the new regulation, effective Dec. 5, Tiburon residents might not notice much different in their lives—no retailers currently sell tobacco products in the southern Marin town anyway, according to city officials. The Tiburon tobacco-sales restriction comes as Marin County as a whole is considering measures to discourage tobacco sales. In October the Board of Supervisors heard a proposed ordinance to establish a minimum price of $12 for all tobacco-smoking devices (with a $1 increase every two years) and prohibit the use of coupons and discounts. “Tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, and in Marin, nearly half of 11th graders report having tried vaping,” said Dr. Lisa Santora, Marin County public health officer, in a statement of support for the so-called Tobacco Minimum Floor Price Law (MFPL) ordinance.— JW
December 2025
NorthBaybiz 13
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