By multiscreen theater

By Linda Taaffe / Town Crier Staff Writer

The Los Altos City Council was scheduled to decide Tuesday night the fate of a downtown movie theater proposed for the South Plaza parking lot near San Antonio Road.

The city recently cleared legal questions regarding the site’s development and completed a study to determine downtown’s parking capacity.

Results from the study indicated there would be sufficient downtown parking after 2 p.m. weekdays and all day weekends to support the approximately 243 spaces needed for the six-screen, 700-seat theater used as a model for the study.

If the council moved forward with the project, David Gates and Associates would begin developing a Request for Proposal to distribute to theater operators as the next step in the process. City officials anticipated spending approximately $35,000 to complete property negotiations.

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 chose to place a hotel at the site but agreed to develop a plan for downtown that would examine alternative sites for a theater.

The Los Altos City Council last summer targeted the city-owned parking lot adjacent to Bandera restaurant as the best site to place a movie theater. The site could potentially bring more patrons downtown without the impact of traffic and would allow the development of the back facades of Main Street businesses facing San Antonio, according to a city report.

The theater could show first-run movies and art films, and would cost developers about $4.5 million to build and furnish, not including the cost of land or parking improvements, according to early estimates. The project could mean the loss of 70 downtown parking spaces.

Parking and land-use issues sparked concern among some residents who wanted the council to stop the project until further studies were conducted. Council approval would also raise issues over the development of other parking plazas and whether some uses should be entitled to a waiver of the city’s required parking laws.

The Los Altos Village Association urged the council to stop “any consideration of the project. LAVA has always striven to protect land improvements in the downtown, and we think a multi-theatre complex will create problems for parking and maintenance and could drastically change the character of the village,” president Amy Randazzo told the council in a letter.

The council made its decision after the Town Crier’s press deadline. For updated information, logon to www.losaltosonline.com.