By Clarence Cromwell
A group that wants to save the theater at Old Town repeated its plea to the Planning Commission at the first of two public hearings regarding the project's draft environmental impact report.
Deke Hunter and Ed Storm, owners of the center, propose covering their sunken University Avenue parking lot with either one or two new buildings and renovating the existing shopping center.
The Planning Commission will take further comments on the draft environmental impact report Nov. 13, when they are expected to recommend that the council either accept or reject the report. The council must take action on the report by Dec. 13 because the state-imposed deadline for approving the application will run out in late December. A city has 12 months to process most development proposals.
After environmental concerns are known, the town will hold further hearings to decide whether Old Town can construct new buildings and remodel the old ones on its University Avenue property. (The time limit doesn't apply to full approval of the project because a zoning change is needed.)
Local theater-lovers calling themselves the Los Gatos Theater Project head the drive to prevent the developers from turning the former theater into retail space and instead restore it for use as a theater. The theater staged plays between 1967 and 1993. It was once the auditorium of University Avenue School.
Old Town's draft EIR finds that turning the auditorium into retail shops won't have a significant cultural impact on the town. State law defines a cultural resource as a building with archaeological or historical significance, which the theater lacks. Losing a theater would impact cultural life in Los Gatos, the report states, but under California environmental laws, that doesn't have to be addressed in an EIR.
A dozen members of the group spoke at the Planning Commission meeting, telling the commission it's important for Los Gatos to have a theater of its own and asking that the theater be considered.
"We feel it's a quite significant impact," said Don Weller, adding that he would like to see the auditorium become a regional theater.
The group had pressed the town to restore the theater at a March 27 hearing on the preliminary draft EIR.
Commissioner Sandy Decker urged the theater proponents to find a sponsor who can make the theater turn a profit for the owners of Old Town because the town can't make them use the space for a theater, and can't afford to rent space for a theater group.
Other neighbors raised a number of concerns, including traffic on Edelen Avenue headed for Old Town's rear lot and noisy trash pickups between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. Old Town co-owner Storm said, since those problems already exist, the shopping center will take care of them separately, rather than mix them up with the project.
Parking, which dominated the March 27 hearing, also surfaced briefly last week. Old Town's expansion is expected to increase Old Town's shortage of parking from the current 457 spaces to 722 spaces.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, October 30, 1996.
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