By Linda Taaffe

The Los Altos City Council Tuesday night squelched any plans to spend more money soliciting proposals for a multiscreen movie theater downtown - but that doesn’t mean the project is dead. Members said they would consider moving forward on the project should a theater operator approach the city with an economically feasible plan to build a smaller, two- to three-screen movie house on the city-owned parking lot adjacent to Bandera restaurant.

Mayor Kris Casto set new project parameters in the 11th hour after the council rejected a plan to spend $8,100 for an expert to prepare a Request For Proposal and voted down a suggestion from Councilman King Lear to proceed with the project should someone step forward with a $100,000 grant to fund more studies.

“If this was an easy issue, we probably would have just decided a long time ago and been done with it,” Casto said. “We’ve had a charrette and spent some dollars, and maybe in hindsight, we should have done this meeting first and then the charrette. However, this is where we are. …We were told by economic feasibility folks that … they woudn’t be able to provide replacement parking. We were told that it had to be a certain size. So I’m in a bit of a quandary as to the process … I don’t want to spend money studying it, because it’s sort of a waste of time if what we come up with is not doable and no one is going to bid on it.

“I agree with people who say this is not money well spent at this time,” she added.

The council’s decision essentially put the ball in the theater operators’ court. Rather than soliciting proposals based on an expert’s design review criteria, the city will wait to see if any operators believe they can build and successfully maintain a theater within the council’s last-minute revamp of the project’s parameters, which call for a 7,000-square-foot building with 500 seats and two or three screens. The operator would be responsible for building the theater, replacing any parking lost to the project, adding at least 25 percent of the additional parking required for such a project and paying the city a fair market lease.

“There is a possibility that you could put together an RFP and … find an operator who would be willing to build it with your criteria,” said John Ruzzo of Camera Cinemas who had been working with the city over the past year on theater studies. “If you put an RFP together for one screen with 500 seats … to be honest, I don’t think we would come forth on that. It just doesn’t work. At a minimum, it would have to be three screens at least … you can try it, but it may not be worth your while to do a single screen.”

Councilman Francis La Poll said the council should at least ask theater operators whether they would be interested in a smaller theater project, or the project would essentially die that night.

“If we can’t get a developer who can give what we want and what reflects our values, then we don’t do the project,” La Poll said.

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 planned to donate land for the project in order to bring what they called “a public benefit” to town.

The project grew from visions of a 500-seat movie house to an 18,000-square-foot, six-screen theater with 750 seats based on what economists and theater operators said would be an economically feasible size for such a business.

Such a theater would have eliminated 75 parking spaces from the quarter-acre lot that merchants donated to the city to use as public parking.

The model plan did not include the replacement of lost parking or additional parking.

The model, which would not have been decided until the RFP process was complete, drew criticism from downtown merchants and residents who said the project was too large, too risky and would possibly set a precedent for waiving parking requirements.

“I am opposed to any multiple screen movie theater in downtown,” said longtime merchant Mel Kahn. “I think the council needs to be reminded once again that the property owners in the downtown bought the land and then after everything was set, gave the parking plazas back to the city … any project development they are doing should have a major increase in parking.”

Julie Rose, president of the Los Altos Chamber of Commerce, echoed Kahn’s concerns.

“Our board of directors this morning unanimously voted in favor of asking me to come here this evening and tell you to please not pursue a proposal for a downtown theater project,” Rose told the council. “The businesses consistently have asked for more parking, not the same or less, and they feel this project would have definite impact on parking.”

Community Development Director James Walgren said the city waived the project’s parking requirements because studies indicated that there would be sufficient downtown parking to support the approximately 243 spaces needed for such a theater.

If the city gets a response, they will move forward with an RFP.