Performing Arts Venue Now Winning Ovations

More than a decade ago, plans to build the largest regional performing arts center between Los Angeles and San Francisco shook the city of Thousand Oaks to its core.

Critics warned the $86-million project would sink the city into debt, open the floodgates to traffic and stand as a concrete eyesore on the edge of the Ventura Freeway. Petitions were filed, recalls launched, angry words exchanged.

But eight years after the imposing monument to culture and civic pride opened its doors on Thousand Oaks Boulevard, the naysayers largely stand corrected.

Millions of dollars in loans have been repaid to various city sources, the 1,800-seat main hall continues to attract large audiences, and local performers delight in showcasing their talent at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

“I think it’s been a cultural benefit. Everything I’ve read says attendance is good,” said former Councilwoman Elois Zeanah, one of the project’s fiercest critics and who still holds some reservations about the Civic Arts Plaza.

Perhaps the plaza’s most important legacy is how it helped the 38-year-old city become a self-contained municipality that doesn’t rely on others to fill its needs, said longtime supporter and former Councilman Frank Schillo, now a county supervisor.

“It’s the central focus for the arts in this community, and it shows we’re not tied in any way, shape or form to Los Angeles County,” said Schillo, who used to drive south to see plays. “We’re a complete city.”

The transformation has been so complete that 2 million people from the Conejo Valley and beyond have paid from $8 to $100 a ticket to see shows at the Civic Arts Plaza since its premiere performance Oct. 21, 1994, when entertainer Bernadette Peters took the main stage.

Although early projections said attendance would hit 1 million in five years, it accomplished that goal in three, said theaters director Tom Mitze, who manages the 1,800-seat Kavli Theater and 400-seat Scherr Forum.

People are drawn to the wide mix of programs designed to appeal to mainstream tastes, from touring productions of Broadway blockbusters “Cats” and “Miss Saigon” to the less-renowned but equally intriguing Shanghai Ballet, Mitze said.

Crowds also turn out to see local companies such as the Channel Islands Ballet, Santa Susana Repertory and the New West Symphony, the Civic Arts Plaza’s resident orchestra.

“We listen to what the public says, and they say they want family-oriented entertainment,” Mitze said. “Just about everyone I talk to says they’re so grateful they don’t have to drive to Los Angeles to see a show.”

The two theaters operate on a $3-million annual budget generated by rental fees, concessions and other sources, including a $250,000 annual gift from the nonprofit Alliance for the Arts.

Since 1999, the city’s General Fund has contributed $250,000 a year to the theaters to cover the cost of services provided by other departments. In addition to the alliance’s hefty contribution -- generated by interest on a $3-million endowment -- Friends of the Civic Arts Plaza supplies hundreds of volunteers who serve as ushers during performances.

“We are one of the only public theaters in the nation running in the black,” said former Councilwoman Linda Parks, who was elected after the plaza was already in operation.

Before the Civic Arts Plaza was built, detractors warned that its tangled financing would plunge the city into insolvency. Because some deals for funding fell through, officials led by then-Mayor Alex Fiore sunk the downtown Redevelopment Agency heavily into debt to realize their dream.

The agency issued $28 million in bonds and borrowed $19 million from at least 10 city accounts to build the $64-million complex and buy the $22-million, 22-acre site.

Most severely depleted were the insurance reserve and fixed-asset replacement funds. One covers liability in court cases; the other replaces worn-out city equipment.

Since then, the Redevelopment Agency has repaid all but $1.6 million of the internal loans, said Candis Hong, the city’s finance director. The remainder is owed to fixed-asset replacement and is scheduled to be repaid by 2010, she said.

The outstanding bond debt is being repaid at a rate of $1.8 million a year with a payoff scheduled in 2025, Hong said.

Because the theaters do not turn a profit, the money to pay back the debt comes from property taxes generated by the downtown redevelopment district, Hong said.

But longtime detractors say the dollars lavished on the 10-story, modernist structure they consider an eyesore could have been better spent on parks, streets and acquiring open space than on city leaders’ “ego project.”

Zeanah and other critics said they supported the idea of a community theater, but contend the Civic Arts Plaza was too extravagant and that Thousand Oaks did not need a new city hall.

What’s more, the steel and concrete building clashed with the overall look of the low-slung city with its open ridgelines and unobstructed views.

“I did not like the design, and I still don’t,” Zeanah said. “I think it’s atrocious. I’m embarrassed every time I drive by on the freeway. It was the officials and the politicians and their supporters who wanted it the way they wanted it, and they didn’t want any public interference.”

Others were not so thrilled by the dull-brown rectangle of copper strips adorning the freeway side of the building. The abstract sculpture created an uproar in the community, with some armchair art critics complaining it resembled solar panels or a giant radiator grille stuck on the concrete wall.

So fierce was opposition to the project that activists tried to recall Fiore, who died in January, and Schillo. Together with former Councilwoman Judy Lazar, they formed a powerful triumvirate.

“I feel they really ramrodded it through,” Zeanah said.

After the complex was erected, the recall efforts faded. “It was very important for us to try to do what was right,” said former critic Lori Kissinger, a Thousand Oaks reading specialist who sometimes takes her students to children’s programs at the plaza. “After 10 years, the passion dies down.”

But Zeanah said the financial fallout lives on through the city’s annual subsidy and in the building’s second elevator added last year. The elevator’s total price tag grew to more than $1 million because of cost overruns. The subsidy is expected to climb to $394,000 this year and $416,500 in 2002-03.

“The only thing you can do now is to keep city officials from giving rosy financial projections,” Zeanah said. “It’s been constructed, but the cost is still going up.”

Critics also cite the “sweetheart deal” struck two years ago with Caruso Affiliated Holdings Inc. to develop the 10 acres next to the Civic Arts Plaza. Part of the original 22-acre site, the parcel was envisioned by Schillo and Fiore as the future home of a shopping and entertainment complex that would help revitalize aging Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

Several plans fell through over the years, and the property’s future now rests with Los Angeles Police Commissioner Rick Caruso and his Santa Monica-based development company. Caruso’s $40-million proposal for the Civic Arts Plaza includes a 12-screen movie theater, several restaurants and retail stores, a three-story office building and a 1 1/2-acre lake that would morph into an ice-skating rink in winter. The city has pledged $12.2 million in redevelopment funds toward the project.