A debate over the color of a Mill Valley boutique remains unresolved after reaching an anticlimactic public hearing this week that left the store owner blue in the face.

Kannyn January and her turquoise-painted store at 118 Throckmorton Ave. in downtown Mill Valley were put on trial at City Hall on Tuesday, after city planners said the bright paint, known as “Hawaiian Vacation,” violates city code. The fate of the vibrant color palette at Branded Boutique remains in limbo, however, as the Planning Commission didn’t have the answer.

The commission voted 4-0, with Commissioner Urban Carmel absent, to continue the hearing to a date uncertain, directing staff to work with January to find a solution. That could mean keeping some of the turquoise as a highlight or trim, commissioners said.

“It’s just too bright,” Commissioner Ric Capretta said, adding that the city code calls for muted earth tones, and that the turquoise was unlike anything else in the downtown.

Chairman Kevin Skiles said he is sympathetic.

“I think it’s a very attractive color, but unfortunately that is not what our job is here to do,” he said. “It’s to interpret the design review guidelines and call balls and strikes on them. … And I agree, this is not close.”

January said she would continue to work with city staff, but she was left frustrated, worried and confused. She has already spent $1,550 on the design review application, a path she would have avoided if she knew the project wouldn’t be approved.

“I just don’t know what it means, what it’s going to look like,” January said after the decision. “It’s been very stressful.”

It all started when the city received complaints about the color in August after the store was painted. While the paint has its critics, there are several shoppers who signed a petition in the store and residents who used social media sites, such as Nextdoor, to offer comments of support.

January is a 37-year-old San Luis Obispo resident who owns two other boutiques, one in her hometown and the other in Paso Robles. She opened the Branded Boutique three years ago in Mill Valley. It is a 1898 Victorian-style building that once was the Mill Valley Market, a laundromat and the Mill Valley Hat Box. It’s a mixed-use building with an apartment on top.

When Branded moved in, the building had extensive water damage and needed work, January said. The exterior paint was a blue-green-gray. The shop was overlooked by pedestrians who passed by but rarely came inside, January said. The reason?

“People didn’t know it was a store, they looked at it and saw a house,” she said.

After a couple of years, and little business, January decided to liven things up.

She searched traditional Victorian styles and saw that bright, vibrant colors were the way of the past. She modeled her boutique after one in Paris, which happened to be turquoise-teal, her favorite color, she said.

The groundfloor exterior was painted “Hawaiian Vacation,” while the top was painted an antique white. The water damage was fixed and other repairs were made.

She said that since painting the store, foot traffic has increased by 30 percent, “and that is critical to a vibrant downtown, is keeping businesses in their locations for as long as possible.”

Citing the city code, which says “building colors should generally be muted earth tones derived from either painted surfaces or natural materials such as brick, wood or stone,” and that “colors should tend toward warm, rather than cool, tones,” city planners didn’t think it was appropriate.

The city guidelines also state that “large surfaces of intense white should be avoided.”

Painting a storefront in downtown Mill Valley does not require a permit, but because the color does violate what is acceptable by city code, the project required a design review application, said Kathleen Kilgariff, an assistant city planner.

The city delivered an ultimatum to store manager Linda Gomes, saying the store must comply or the business would face enforcement, including a $100-a-day fine.

January was given the option to apply for design review. In retrospect, she would have put the $1,550 she spent on the process toward finding a compromise with staff outside of the public hearing process, she said.

At the hearing, January pointed out that some downtown stores are painted white entirely, and that the Playa restaurant is navy blue, and that Urban Remedy, a juice bar, has a bright green color, and that she is confused by the definition of “earth tones.”

Gomes added, “I do believe turquoise comes from the ground, so it is an earth tone.”

It’s a point that resonated with Commissioner Nate Bosshard, who said, “Wherever we end up, I would like to actually define (allowable) colors. … I think there is an argument for interpretation.”

He said the city could avoid future problems if business owners had a palette of appropriate colors to use as reference.

The commission agreed.

Mill Valley artist and architect Brian Huber said that historically, Victorian-style buildings have been painted bright, vibrant colors. He said that downtown Mill Valley features a variety of building colors and that the application of rules seems inconsistent.

“Whether turquoise is an earth tone or not, I particularly like the color and quite honestly, it’s a little more refreshing,” he said.

Resident Jacqueline Kroner said she lives in the neighborhood and walks by every day. She said that 118 Throckmorton Ave. has been one store or another for years, and she doesn’t buy that pedestrians and shoppers would dismiss it as a house.

“I’ve gotten used to it (the color),” she said. But, “I think that if they’d inquired whether it was OK to paint the building and proposed their plan, we wouldn’t be meeting here.”