LOCAL ELECTIONS / LA VERNE CITY COUNCIL : Theater Plan Takes Center Stage

A plan to build a 12-screen, 2,900-seat movie theater on Foothill Boulevard has emerged as the leading issue in the April 10 mayoral and City Council election.

Opponents say the theater complex would increase traffic congestion, produce little city revenue, invite crime and harm the city’s small-town atmosphere. Supporters say residents want a local movie house, and maintain that the potential crime and traffic problems have been exaggerated. There is no theater in the city now.

Mayor Jon Blickenstaff, who has backed the theater project, is running for reelection against David L. Sardeson, who has made the theater complex a campaign issue and is leading an effort to put an initiative on the ballot later this year to ban construction of any restaurant or theater with more than 1,000 seats.

Of the four candidates competing for two seats on the City Council, two favor the theater project and two oppose it.

Construction of the complex is being blocked by a court order that prohibits the city from issuing a building permit until a lawsuit is heard in Los Angeles Superior Court on April 12. The suit, filed by a business owner and residents, alleges that the city failed to conduct adequate environmental studies and neglected to notify property owners about the project. The city has denied the allegations.

Sardeson said the complex would produce unmanageable traffic on congested Foothill Boulevard.

“The last thing we need here is a twelve-plex theater development,” he said, adding that the project runs counter to efforts to preserve La Verne’s “small-town way of life.” It’s population is 30,484.

The proposed development on 12.5 acres includes two restaurants. Sardeson said many residents would prefer more restaurants and a smaller theater.

However, Blickenstaff said the 12 screens would allow a variety of films to be shown at staggered hours, thereby limiting the number of cars entering and leaving the parking lot at any one time. The 2,900 seats are not an extraordinary number, he said. A city survey shows that Edwards Cinemas’ 10-screen complex in Azusa has 3,218 seats, and the General Cinema eight-screen complex at the Montclair Plaza has 3,000 seats.

Sardeson has also accused the city of concealing information while the Planning Commission and council were considering the Foothill Boulevard Specific Plan last year. He said Edwards Theater Circuit Inc. filed an application to build the complex last March, but city officials withheld details for months.

He said city staff members sought to limit public scrutiny. For example, he said, the city manager advised theater developers to delay until after the election their application for a conditional use permit to operate after midnight.

City Manager Martin Lomeli said he advised the delay because the theater operators did not need the permit to start building, and because he did not want “politics and emotionalism involved in the process.” He said he would give similar advice to any developer with a controversial proposal. He said a delay avoids the possibility of having the council members who approve a project later replaced by opponents who have no control over it.

Blickenstaff said the theater proposal was not hidden and “there was no effort to mislead anyone.” He said the site, on Foothill east of B Street, was marked at various times over five years with signs heralding plans to build a theater.

Blickenstaff said the council and Planning Commission conducted numerous hearings on the Foothill Boulevard Specific Plan, which designated the property for entertainment use and spelled out development standards.

Blickenstaff, 45, principal at an Azusa junior high school, has lived in La Verne all his life and has served eight years as mayor and two years as a councilman.

Sardeson, a 40-year-old flooring contractor, describes himself as a council gadfly who has made it his business to follow city affairs. He also has been a leader in efforts to preserve the city’s history and landmark buildings. He is co-founder and vice president of La Verne Heritage Foundation and successfully fought against the proposed demolition of Miller Hall at the University of La Verne.

Blickenstaff said he is running on a record that includes “calm, stable government” and a financially sound city. Sardeson said his campaign slogan is: “It’s about choice. It’s about change. It’s about time.”

The mayor serves a two-year term. Council members are elected for four years.

Of the four council candidates, incumbent Robert F. Rodriguez and Planning Commissioner Judy Hyle support the theater project, while Councilman Patrick J. Gatti and retired minister Melvin P. Laven are opposed.

Rodriguez, who retired as a Pomona Police Department lieutenant in 1980 after a 27-year career, said theater opponents have been frightening residents by alleging that the project would increase crime. More than 1,300 people signed a petition against the project that bore the headline “Crime Increases in La Verne,” but the petition did not offer evidence to link the proposal with crime.

Rodriguez said opponents seem to believe that theaters will draw undesirable people to La Verne. Though crime will rise anywhere a commercial center replaces vacant land, Rodriguez said, it is wrong to suggest that theaters attract “the wrong element.”

“I go to the movies,” he said, “and I’m not the wrong element.”

Rodriguez, 60, is director of administrative services at the University of La Verne. He and Blickenstaff are not running as a team, but hold similar views.

Hyle, who is seeking to become the first woman on the council, said the city has “missed the boat” on economic development. “We need to get aggressive,” she said, pointing to the Price Club and Home Club as the sort of high-revenue retail outlets that La Verne should have attracted, but that opened instead in neighboring cities.

Hyle, 39, has served on the Planning Commission for more than three years, and helped write the city’s new General Plan and its specific plan for Foothill Boulevard. She works as an education coordinator, setting up medical seminars for physicians.

She said the theater proposal is “a good use for that piece of property” and noted that a survey of opinion in La Verne showed that many residents would like to have a movie theater.

Gatti, 47, who owns a flower shop, describes himself as “the outsider” on the council. Gatti was the only council member to vote against the theater complex.

He said the council should have given the public more opportunity to raise objections. Many people did not realize the size of the theater project, he said.

Gatti said the city is moving in the right direction. In eight years on the council, he said, he has worked to strengthen police and fire services and attract businesses. “I don’t think we’re in bad shape,” he said.

Laven, 74, who served as a volunteer chaplain for the city Fire Department for 12 years, said he has no objection to the construction of a theater but is concerned about its size and about traffic.

He has made a promise to work cooperatively with developers if elected. He said the city has taken “too much of an adversarial approach” toward developers, making unreasonable demands and abruptly changing regulations.