GLENDALE : Study Praises Plan for Theater District

Plans for a live theater district in the heart of downtown Glendale inched forward this week with the release of a planning study concluding that the city will benefit not only culturally, but economically if it gives the arts a chance.

AMS Planning and Research of Petaluma interviewed local businesses and theater-goers and recommended that the district be established on Brand Boulevard, where the Alex Theatre, Glendale Centre Theatre and A Noise Within are already located. A fourth live theater group, The Colony Studio Theater of Silver Lake, has announced plans to move to downtown Glendale and would also become part of the district.

The report includes studies of several other cities that have established their own public theater agencies and recommendations on how Glendale can do the same. Among the possibilities is the creation of a theater district partnership that would manage the local live theater scene.

But Derrill Quaschnick, the city’s assistant redevelopment director, said many questions have yet to be resolved as to how the city would pay the subsidies that are often required to bolster the local arts scene. According to the report, the district would cost up to $200,000 a year.

Among the ideas suggested for covering the costs are utility taxes, sales taxes, federal grants, developer fees and fund-raising events.

But Quaschnick said the city would like to help foster a self-sustained theater district, with an internal funding mechanism such as a ticket surcharge.

“If we create a theater district driven by the Redevelopment Agency or the city, we are setting it up as a project we would always have to direct and force its inspiration and motivation,” Quaschnick said. “What we want is something we will be able to participate in, but not necessarily be the driving force.”