Residents Seek Delay of Theater Plan Vote

More than 100 concerned residents from the Vista Monte housing development are expected to ask the City Council on Monday to postpone its vote on a proposed theater complex and recommend changes to mitigate the concerns of neighboring residents.

The council is scheduled to vote on whether to permit a 16-theater and restaurant complex, called the Civic Center Plaza, to be built on a spacious swath of commercially-zoned land at Tapo Canyon Road and Alamo Street.

“This is our last shot,” said Susanne Waite, a Vista Monte resident who is helping to organize opposition to the project. “This thing is just going to be way too close to our homes and we want that changed.”

In a unanimous vote last month, the Planning Commission approved developer Robert Selleck’s plans to build the 54,000-square-foot complex next to the Vista Monte housing development.

Waite and other residents said it will be a constant nuisance and will devalue their homes.

“We’re not looking to have this project scrapped; we just want it changed so that it won’t affect us so much,” Waite said.

But when the homes in Vista Monte were built several years ago, residents were notified that the neighboring property was open for commercial development that would include entertainment facilities, giving them the option of not moving there.

Waite said that residents plan to submit a petition to the council and are considering whether to seek legal recourse to have the project changed.

The City Council meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 2929 Tapo Canyon Road.