Judge Blocks Construction of Getty Amphitheater

The expansion and renovation of the Getty Villa art museum in Pacific Palisades has come to a sudden halt after a judge’s ruling that an amphitheater cannot be built there as part of the $150-million project.

The 450-seat Roman-style outdoor theater was supposed to be the new centerpiece of the original Getty museum when it reopens two years from now. The museum has been closed since 1997, when the larger Getty Center opened in Brentwood.

But in a victory for nearby homeowners, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dzintra I. Janavs ruled that the amphitheater cannot be constructed because the villa’s canyon-like site near the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Coastline Drive is not zoned for it.

Theaters require commercial zoning, but the Getty Villa sits on land that long has been designated for agricultural use, Janavs said in a ruling issued this week.

Operators of the Getty Trust said they are still evaluating the ruling and studying their options--including an appeal to a higher court.

“The Getty’s primary goal is to proceed with construction at the Villa at the earliest possible date in order for this wonderful museum and resources to again be available to the people of Los Angeles,” said Donald Baker, a Getty Trust lawyer.

Added Deborah Gribbon, Getty Trust vice president and director of the J. Paul Getty Museum: “I remain confident that these issues will be resolved soon so that the broader Los Angeles Community will benefit from the Villa’s educational offerings.”

In her ruling, the judge said that a 1975 conditional-use permit issued by Los Angeles officials allowed billionaire oil magnate J. Paul Getty to construct a museum there. But an amphitheater is not a museum, Janavs concluded.

Additionally, Janavs noted in her nine-page ruling, a 26-year-old pact between Getty officials and the Sunset Mesa Property Owners Assn. allowing the museum’s exit driveway to cross association-owned land was in jeopardy if amphitheater-goers used it. The judge wrote that the “agreement was not intended to include an outdoor theater.”

The amphitheater plan is opposed by some nearby homeowners who say it would increase traffic in their neighborhood. Over their objections, the Los Angeles City Council in December approved the villa’s expansion as a home for the Getty’s famed antiquities collection.

After that, a coalition of organizations, including the Sunset Mesa group, Pacific Coast Homeowners, Pacific View Estates Homeowners Assn., the Castellammare Mesa Homeowners Assn., Pacific Palisades Community Council and Pacific Palisades Residents Assn., sued the city and the Getty Trust.

City officials did not return phone calls Thursday seeking comment.

Opponents of the amphitheater predicted that the Getty will be able to do little to salvage the amphitheater, however.

“There’s no wiggle room. They’re dead in the water,” homeowners’ lawyer John Murdock said.

Garrett Hanken, another attorney who represented homeowners in the case, said Getty officials may now have to seek a whole new permit even to reopen their old museum.

“For the Getty, it’s a little worse than being back at Square 1,” Hanken said.

Neighbors of the museum said they would be happy to see a modest-scale antiquities museum reopen on the site. But they faulted city officials for bending rules to help the Getty Trust enlarge operations there.

“What the city did in approving to begin with was absolutely outrageous,” said resident Barbara Kohn, who has lived in Pacific Palisades for 35 years. “The zoning laws are clear. What was proposed there was wrong.”

Getty officials said the proposed amphitheater would be used to help bring to life the Greek and Roman art displayed in the museum. Visitors would watch classical dramatic and musical productions at the semicircular theater carved into a hillside facing the museum and then go inside and view artworks corresponding with the production outside.