Backers of Theater in Park Say Plan Is Alive

Backers of a controversial plan to build a theater complex at a Woodland Hills park said Friday that their $30-million project is alive, despite a “fact sheet” they distributed this week that suggests otherwise.

Foes of the project had cheered when an informational flyer issued by the Valley Cultural Center stated that development plans for the 20-acre Warner Park next to Warner Center’s high-rise core are “indefinite.”

The flyer, handed out during a concert Sunday at the park, asserted that the current development goal is only to obtain a replacement bandstand “for the inadequate one we now have.”

Funding Still Pursued

But a full-fledged performing arts complex is still being proposed for the park and financing is being pursued, officials of the San Fernando Valley Cultural Foundation said Friday. The project would include a 1,200-seat concert hall, a 650-seat theater and a 150-chair performance room.

The Cultural Center’s assertion is “not really accurate at all,” said Madeleine Landry, executive director of the foundation. “They were trying to answer some of the misinformation being put out. But that was a poor choice of words.”

Ada Beth Lee, president of the Cultural Center, said the fact sheet would be rewritten “much clearer,” and reprinted before this Sunday’s concert at the park, situated at Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Marylee Street.

‘Time Frames Indefinite’

“I meant that time frames for the development were indefinite,” Lee said. “I didn’t mean for a minute to dismiss the plan.”

The proposed theater complex has come under increasing fire from Woodland Hills residents, who have claimed that the development would increase traffic congestion in Warner Center and destroy the area’s only public park.

Leaders of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization have criticized the project as something that would “sacrifice scarce and precious parkland . . . to satisfy the personal egos” of politicians and business leaders affiliated with the Cultural Foundation.

Foes of the project have circulated petitions against the development for the past year. Much of the opposition has been generated by flyers distributed by the anti-theater side at Sunday afternoon summer concerts that attract up to 7,000 people.

‘Interrupting’ Concerts

Landry said the theater foes have “been out there Sunday after Sunday interrupting the concerts with false information.”

Lee said the opponents “stand right next to our table and button-hole people.” She said they “give out a lot of misinformation . . . it is utter confusion.” “I’m trying to be as factual as I can,” Lee said.

Melvin Perlitsh, a park development foe singled out for criticism by both Landry and Lee, said he was disappointed that cultural officials have not scrapped the theater plan, as this week’s flyer suggested.

“A public park playground is not the place for a bunch of buildings,” Perlitsh said. “Let them put them someplace else.”