Cinema battle continues

The merchant group initially filed four lawsuits against the city, and all but one were thrown out. This finding now invalidates the city's lease with Century Theatres until it comes up with a game plan for the Plaza Lane closure. The city can re-approve the lease only after a public hearing on the closure.

Gary De Santis, a leader in the suit represented by the Committee for a Responsible Cinema Project, is pleased with the ruling and said the city council will now have to face mounting public opposition. "We're very happy to have won the court case against the city. We feel now that the project is no longer approved and has to go back through the procedures before it can be re-approved. This will give the public time to come forward and demonstrate how strongly they object to this monsterplex," he said.

City Attorney Roy Abrams said the only thing the city has left to deal with from citizen opposition is the street closure procedures, which the city intended to go through with anyway. "While we would have certainly preferred that the court concur that the timing for going through closure procedures should be at the time of actual closure, the court's decision does not adversely impact the project and that is very good news.

We will now move forward to re-enter into the agreement and close the streets," Abrams said.

The Century Theatre project, a 12-screen 1,843-seat multi-plex located along Main Street between Second and Third Avenues, brought public opposition from the start. Opponents contend that the project is too big for the allotted space, and would bring substantially more traffic congestion and parking problems. They also question the city's agreement with Century to tear down the existing 381-space Main Street garage and rebuild it for $11 million, The new garage would have 14 additional parking spaces. The city has maintained that the benefits of having a revitalized downtown outweigh the costs of additional parking and traffic.

After the city council approved the cinema project last year, the merchants filed the lawsuits challenging the project's planning, zoning codes and procedural guidelines. Three were thrown out earlier this year, and the only argument left in the recent suit was the Plaza Lane closure. The court ruled out the other grounds in the suit, including the contention that the city applied preferential zoning ordinances to allow for the cinema, and that the cinema unfairly does not have to pay into the Central Parking and Improvement District - which provides downtown parking - like all other businesses.

Even with the recent court decision, Abrams said he does not anticipate any delays to the project - which is likely to begin in the first quarter of next year.

Deputy Mayor John Lee said that the re-approval of the city lease with Century Theatres should go through without any problems. "That's just a technicality that we see no problems with," Lee said.

But De Santis feels this is a prime opportunity to give the growing opposition a public voice.

"They were wrong in their approval of it the first time, and they are incorrect if they feel that the public is not going to come forward and oppose the project given the opportunity now," De Santis said.

The Committee for Responsible Cinema is also thinking of their next steps. De Santis mentioned looking into placing a measure on the ballot for a citizen vote. He also said the group will put pressure on the city council to open up the environmental impact report again, given the fact that traffic congestion is worse since the EIR's completion in mid 1999. De Santis said a number of new projects downtown, including the 101 Ellsworth project, the new hotel between 4th and 5th Avenue, and a new restaurant planned on 2nd Ave., right around the corner from the cinema project is reason enough to open the EIR.

"Because we have won this lawsuit, the city council has an opportunity and responsibility to re-examine this project and re-evaluate the EIR," De Santis said.

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