Larkspur HOA Guide: Local Rules for Boards and Owners

Larkspur caps rent increases at 5% plus inflation or 7%, whichever is lower, and allows only one increase in 12 months (section 6.20.040). The cap does not exempt condos or single-family homes as a group. Some can qualify for a separate exemption for homes that can be sold apart from other units, but not if the owner is a REIT, a corporation or certain LLCs, and tenants must get the required notice (section 6.20.070). Covered owners pay a yearly program fee.

Larkspur’s just-cause eviction rules (chapter 6.30) also do not exempt condos as a group, and they end on January 1, 2030. Owners who rent out units in your community should know these rules. They apply to the owner as landlord, not to the association.

A heritage tree is any live tree with a trunk 50 inches or more in circumference, measured 24 inches above grade, with the trunks of multi-trunk trees added together (section 12.16.010). Removing one takes a permit and usually an arborist report. Owners within 300 feet get notice and have 15 days to protest, and permits last 12 months. Fire-prone trees can be removed with the fee waived once the fire code official verifies them, and oaks with Sudden Oak Death need only an arborist report and a staff inspection (section 12.16.070).

Gas leaf blowers are banned on residential properties, but the code exempts multifamily dwellings, parks and commercial properties (section 9.57.010). At residential properties, blowers may run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. At multifamily and commercial properties, the weekday hours are 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. No leaf blowers anywhere on Sundays or federal holidays (section 9.57.020). Ask the city how your community is classified before setting your landscaper’s schedule.

Construction is allowed from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays, and not on Sundays or holidays (section 9.54.060).

Larkspur’s fire code requires clearing hazardous vegetation within 100 feet of structures (up to 200 feet where needed), keeping 10 feet clear along access roads and driveways and removing ladder fuels (section 14.04.110). Central Marin Fire has run annual defensible-space inspections since 2020 and covers the 0-to-5-foot Zone 0 around buildings. Owners are also responsible for roadside vegetation in front of their homes: 10 feet to the side and 15 feet overhead.

Since January 7, 2026, selling a home in Larkspur’s wildland-urban interface requires a Central Marin Fire report first ($211 in 2026), but individual condominium units and townhouses are exempt (section 15.40.045). Existing chimneys need spark arrestors at sale (section 14.10.040). Defensible space: (415) 275-1185.

Marin voters approved Measure C in March 2020, a 10-year parcel tax of up to 10 cents per square foot of building or $75 per multifamily unit, to fund the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority. Its inspectors and local fire departments run defensible-space and home-hardening evaluations, but enforcing the rules is up to your local fire agency.

The city says Larkspur is vulnerable to flooding from high tides, heavy rain and rising water in Corte Madera Creek, and it reported significant tidal flooding during the January 2026 king tide. Sandbags are at Piper Park, 250 Doherty Drive. County Flood Control Zone 9 covers the Ross Valley watershed communities, including Larkspur, Greenbrae and Corte Madera. Its storm drainage fee, approved by owners in 2007, is collected on the property tax bill and ends June 30, 2027.

Docks in Corte Madera Creek are for the landowner or tenants only and may not be rented out, and finger piers are not allowed (section 18.16.125).

Section 10.12.110 applies the Vehicle Code only to the private roads in Bon Air Shopping Center and Escalle Village. We found no residential private streets designated. Where none is designated, enforcing parking and speed rules on association-owned streets usually falls to the association. The 72-hour limit on public streets is in section 10.48.050.

Owners must remove weeds and refuse from their property and the abutting half of the street, and the Fire Chief enforces it (chapter 9.26). Administrative citations are $100, then $200, then $500 for repeat violations within a year, and $130, $700 and $1,300 for building and safety violations (section 9.24.110).

Marin Water’s year-round rules bar irrigation between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. and during or within 48 hours after rain. Overhead sprinklers may run up to two days a week and drip systems up to three. A violation brings a written warning, then a $25 fine and then $250. Its Water Watch page showed no water shortage stage when we checked.

Marin Water’s Cash for Grass rebate pays $2.18 per square foot, or $3.68 when at least half the new planting is California-native and low-water. A limited-time rain garden bonus can raise it to $4.68. Pre-approval and a pre-inspection are required before any lawn comes out, and artificial turf does not qualify. The cap is 1,000 square feet for homeowners and 5,000 for business owners, and the program page does not say which cap applies to an HOA common-area meter, so ask the conservation team at (415) 945-1527. Commercial and multifamily accounts can also apply for a Custom Rebate before starting a project.

A state law passed in 2023 (AB 1572) bars the use of drinking water on nonfunctional turf in HOA common areas starting January 1, 2029. The law stops the watering; it does not require removing the lawn. A board that decides to replace decorative lawn can use a rebate, where one is offered, to pay for part of the conversion.

On owners’ lots, Civil Code section 4735 prevents an association from banning low-water plants or artificial turf as a replacement for lawn.