By Linda Taaffe

Los Altos

The Los Altos City Council last week targeted the city-owned parking lot adjacent to Bandera Restaurant in downtown Los Altos as the best site to place a movie theater. City officials plan to conduct parking and legal studies over the next few months as the city moves closer to preparing a detailed plan.

The city could begin accepting contractor bids for the project as early as this fall, though the project is still in a study phase.

The council plans to work from a model plan that includes placing a six- to seven-screen, 18,000-square-foot theater with about 950 seats in Parking Lot C between San Antonio Road and Third Street. The city would lose about 70 parking spaces to such a theater.

The theater could show both first-run movies and art films. The project would cost developers about $4.5 million to build and furnish, not including the cost of land or parking improvements.

The council chose Parking Lot C from among several alternatives discussed at a community meeting earlier this year. Council members said the site could potentially bring more patrons downtown without the impacts of traffic and would allow for the development of the back facades of Main Street businesses facing San Antonio. Parking Lot C is the least used parking and would minimize impact to downtown during construction, according to a city staff report.

Funding and legal questions regarding the development of the site remain unanswered.

Creating more parking and bringing more patrons downtown have been key components of the project. Theater revenues were intended to fund a downtown parking plaza, but such a small theater operation would be unlikely to bring in the amount needed to do so, the council said. The city could lease the land to the theater operator for a low cost and use rent from a downtown housing development to fund new parking, according to a city report.

Legal issues regarding how the city may develop the land must also be answered. The land is city owned, but business owners funded the parking lot through an assessment district. The city attorney was sorting out whether the city would need to refund business owners before leasing the parking lot land.

Community Development Director James Walgren said the city plans to develop a request for a proposal detailing the project’s specifics to developers. The development of the city-owned property at First and Main streets sparked city council interest in bringing a movie theater to town two years ago. The council ultimately chose to place a hotel at the site but agreed to examine alternative sites for a theater.