Rich Viola, the homeowner and applicant for 759 Hawthorne, asked the Tiburon Town Design Review Board on Nov. 20 to enclose an approved covered outdoor kitchen and add a bathroom, saying the enclosure would protect furniture and reduce rodents and noise ("So the big question here that we're asking is to enclose the space and add a bathroom.").

The board approved a floor‑area exception to permit the enclosed pool house, with a 3–1 roll‑call vote after an earlier, stricter screening motion failed. Vice Chair Rosner and two other members voted to condition approval on a landscaping mitigation package requiring pittosporum planted in 24‑inch boxes at roughly 5 feet on center along the north fence to screen the structure; one member voted no and one seat was absent.

The proposal had been reviewed previously as a covered outdoor kitchen (470 square feet). Viola told the board the enclosure would be built within the previously approved footprint with an increase in width of about 3 feet and that the town had already approved landscaping and an ADU over the garage through earlier permits. Planning staff clarified how California’s ADU ministerial rules interact with local floor‑area accounting and said an ADU approval does not necessarily exempt future floor area from local totals.

Board members debated two enforcement approaches: require a reduction in height or mandate more mature screening. One member pressed that repeatedly approving incremental floor‑area exceptions could create an undesirable precedent; others said a substantial, enforceable planting condition would mitigate visual impact. Planning staff advised that minimum plant sizes and planting spacing are enforceable conditions.

The board’s final motion, which passed, authorized the FAR exception and required the north property line to be planted with pittosporum in 24‑inch boxes at approximately 4–6 feet on center as a screen. The board recorded the approval as categorically exempt from CEQA.

What happens next: the applicant may proceed with permits consistent with the board’s findings and the new planting condition. The approval does not change previously permitted ADU approvals on the property; planning staff noted how ADU ministerial allowances can be combined with local floor computations at the local agency’s discretion.