Menke Park reopened on September 19 with a ribbon cutting, free ice cream donated by Lappert's and live music from Rocky Road featuring Sal, Rich and friends. The Corte Madera Community Foundation sponsored the afternoon. From the sidewalk on Tamalpais Drive it looks like the same small green with the same pavilion. What changed is the set of rules around it.

In the weeks on either side of the reopening, the Town Council made three decisions about Old Corte Madera Square. It rewrote the commercial code. It changed how long you can park near the park. It decided how the pavilion will be lit for the holidays. Each decision treats Piccolo Pavilion as more than a summer concert stage. The town is setting it up as a place where something happens on an ordinary Tuesday morning.

A Renovation Built Around the Pavilion

The $435,000 project was planned around gatherings. The Marin Independent Journal reported in January that the plan included new shingles and paint at Piccolo Pavilion, a removable railing there, a new retaining wall, new irrigation, new benches, fresh plants and sod, and an ADA-compliant path linking the lower and upper parts of the park. The town's construction notice spelled out what those pieces were for. The pavilion railing was modified "for event support," and the low retaining wall was designed to double as informal seating.

According to the Independent Journal, Town Manager Adam Wolff said staff used comments from a community meeting in early 2025 to shape a plan meant to make the park more welcoming for concerts and activities. The trees got the same attention. The plan called for removing seven trees in poor condition and planting three in their place: a coast live oak, a cucumber magnolia and a California sycamore. It also added 40 new agapanthus and kept or moved the existing ones. The Corte Madera Community Foundation describes the project as focused on ADA access, landscape renewal, keeping the heritage trees and adding California-native plants.

The money came from several public sources and one private partner:

The Foundation has a long history here. Piccolo Pavilion was one of its first fundraising campaigns. At the January council meeting, foundation officer Bob Bundy told the council the project would make the park "the great gem in the heart of our town for the next century," as the Independent Journal reported.

Three Weeks, Three Decisions

The reopening falls in the middle of a short run of council actions. In order:

1. September 15. The council voted 4-0 to approve what Community Development Director Amy Lyle called "an overhaul of our commercial zoning code," including new rules for microbusinesses and street vendors.
2. September 19. Menke Park reopened.
3. October 6. The council unanimously adopted new parking time limits for Old Corte Madera Square.
4. October 6, same meeting. The council supported temporary holiday lighting for the park pavilion.

Each decision shapes what a resident finds at the pavilion on a day with no concert.

Two Hours at the Park, 72 on the Gravel

Parking had come up first. "As we worked with the residents and the businesses in this area, we received a lot of complaints around parking," Lyle told the council, according to the Marin Independent Journal. The complaints included too little parking for businesses and employees parking on residential streets. Lyle linked the problems partly to the town's microbusiness program and to more activity downtown. In other words, the Square got busier, and the parking rules hadn't caught up.

Last year the town hired the engineering firm Parametrix to study parking in the area. Here are the changes the council adopted:

The 72-hour signs don't create a new limit. Corte Madera already bans parking for more than 72 hours. Public Works Director Chris Good explained that some cars downtown had "parked for weeks on end," and the signs are meant to make the existing limit visible. Code enforcement officers will enforce the rules, with help from the Central Marin Police Authority on weekends. At the meeting, Good said new signs could go up within a few weeks, so they may be appearing around the Square about now.

The town calls this a first step. Staff described the changes as a test of whether they solve the problem before officials look at other options. Speakers at the two public workshops also asked for a residential permit program. The draft October 6 minutes say the council wants to review how well the limits work after they've been in place for a while. Council members also talked about improving access to, and the visibility of, the County-owned parking lot near Montecito Drive.

The two-hour limit at the park matters most for this story. It means the spaces closest to the pavilion are meant to turn over, which suits a quick coffee, a short visit or a stop at a shop on Corte Madera Avenue.

One Vendor Slot, and the Pavilion Has the Outlet

The September code overhaul allows one food truck at Menke Park, up to four at Town Park, one at San Clemente Park, and one more location in town with a use permit. "I don't think we're expecting a flood of food trucks," Lyle said, as reported by the Independent Journal.

The single Menke Park slot has a known applicant. Several residents at the meeting spoke in support of local vendor Amy Hughes and her plan for a coffee cart at the park. Hughes told the council the park is underused and her business would help fill that gap. "There's like all these people and they want to hang out in parks," she said.

She has been working on the idea for a while. Redwood Bark reported in December 2024 that the council had approved a one-year pilot letting small vendors sell from four designated parking spaces at Piccolo Pavilion. Hughes was the only applicant then, planning a coffee and pastry trailer called Town Buzz Cafe. The same article explains why the pavilion works for this: it has an electrical outlet, which makes it a more practical vendor spot than Town Park. The site has no water, though, so vendors would have to bring their own. In a May 2025 update to her petition, Hughes said the proposal had been approved and that paying for the trailer was the last step.

The new code makes the vendor slot permanent. Town Buzz Cafe's opening date hasn't been announced, and that's the next thing to watch at the pavilion.

The overhaul also matters for the storefronts on the Square. Restaurants, banks, hotels and studios can now open in commercial districts without a conditional use permit. Outdoor dining on private property under 500 square feet no longer requires added parking. Wolff told the Independent Journal he first looked at changing these codes when he joined the town in 2014.

The First Holiday Season Back

The lighting decision is a smaller version of the same idea. Good gave the council three options: temporary lighting for the pavilion, solar-powered lights for the holiday wreaths, and permanent lighting for the palm trees. The temporary pavilion and wreath lighting was estimated at about $2,000. Permanent palm lighting was estimated at $17,500 to $25,000.

The council supported the cheaper temporary lighting at the pavilion. It asked staff to work with the Beautification Committee on solar lights for the wreaths and decided against permanent palm lighting for now. Peter Chase spoke for the Corte Madera Community Foundation during public comment. Council members weighed the cost, possible effects on the park improvements that were just finished, and the public works crew's other priorities, mainly preparing for winter storms and flooding. No formal vote was taken. Staff said they would go ahead with the temporary option.

So the palms on the Square stay dark this year, and the pavilion is the part that gets lit.

If your family wants to dress up before then, Fieldwork's Doggoween runs at Corte Madera Town Center on Saturday, October 31, from noon to 2 p.m., with a costume contest for dogs. After that, watch Montecito Drive for the new signs and Piccolo Pavilion for its first temporary holiday lights.

If you're thinking about a home within walking distance of Old Corte Madera Square, Elizabeth Green Kilgore can walk you through how the Square is changing and what it means for your plans. Request a Personalized Market Consultation.