Local News in Brief : Agoura Hills Planners Reject Theater Project

The Agoura Hills Planning Commission has denied a developer permission to build what would have been the city’s first movie theater.

The commission Thursday night voted 3 to 2 to deny a conditional-use permit for the eight-unit, 2,250-seat Mann theater and an attached 4,500-square-foot restaurant.

Westland Co., a Ventura-based developer, had sought permission to build the theater complex on 4 acres at Canwood Street just west of Kanan Road.

About a dozen Agoura Hills residents told commissioners that the theater complex would create traffic, parking, crime and other problems.

The company had asked for a waiver from a city requirement that the theater provide 750 parking spaces, a ratio of one for each three theater seats. The company wanted to provide only 454 spaces, 175 of which would be leased from a nearby medical building.

The city planning staff had recommended approval of the project, but wanted the theater reduced to 2,000 seats for a ratio of one parking space per four theater seats.

The three commissioners who voted against the plan said that they would like to see a theater in Agoura Hills but that the proposed Mann complex would create too many traffic problems for the Kanan Road-Canwood Street area.

Theater officials estimated that the complex would attract 550,000 customers a year and generate an average of 2,130 trips a day.

The developer has the option of asking the City Council to overturn the commission’s denial. A company spokesman said she does not know if an appeal is planned.