By Clarence Cromwell
Reports of a pre-1988 ordinance that supposedly required preservation of the theater at Old Town have sown confusion among preservationists and town officials.
Nancy Burbank, a theater supporter, turned up a 1988 newspaper clipping at the Los Gatos library that reports on the Historic Preservation Committee's refusal to allow retail shops in place of Old Town theater. The article said an ordinance "prevented" the change, but it doesn't say what ordinance.
Three planners spent hours one recent day searching through planning records, but they couldn't find any ordinance requiring Old Town to preserve its theater. They found out quickly that preservation is not required under Old Town's current use permit or in historic preservation laws, but they decided to keep looking for the source of the news article, associate planner Sandy Baily said. They never found it.
The Town Council approved plans on Dec. 2 to turn the theater into a retail shop.
The move outraged theater supporters, who cited the preservation ordinance as one reason the council should have required Old Town owners to preserve its theater when it renovates the shopping center. In letters to the editor or to the Town Council, some of them said that they believe the law affected the Dec. 2 decision.
Such an ordinance may have existed at one time, but if it did, it wouldn't be valid today anyway, Baily said.
Any ordinance pertaining to Old Town would be canceled by current historic-preservation ordinances, or at least by the Dec. 2 ordinance detailing the conditions of approval for Old Town's renovation.
The town did, in fact, require preservation of the theater during the late 1980s, although no ordinance was found to record the policy. When Old Town applied in 1987 to convert its theater auditorium into retail space, it got a 4-0 refusal from the Historic Preservation Committee and pressure from the town to preserve the theater. Old Town finally remodeled the auditorium and allowed theater groups to use it.
The Old Town Theater had to apply for a new conditional-use permit in 1989 because it hadn't been used the previous year. The same policy would apply if theater enthusiasts renovated the building today.
But the theater hasn't staged a play in several years. And preservation is not supported by Old Town owners or the town council. When the council modified Old Town's use permit last December, members declined to force theater preservation on a developer, despite pleas from Friends of the Arts and other pro-preservation groups.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, February 5, 1997.
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