But school is unlikely to address the issue
The 301 parking spots currently included in the plans for Santa Monica College’s $15 million Madison Theater aren’t enough, city council members said Tuesday.
They’re willing to spend $20,000 to research other options.
However, representatives from SMC, which wants to build the project on its satellite campus at 10th Street and Santa Monica Boulevard, said the amount of spots is adequate.
And because SMC is not required to follow the City Council’s direction because it is subject to state law and immune from the city’s building codes, the $20,000 may go unclaimed.
“The college is not digging up the parking site,” said Denny Zane, a former mayor who was hired as a consultant to help get the arts project approved.
Zane said that not only would the costs of such action be prohibitive, but the school would be required to go back through the cumbersome environmental review process and thereby further stall the project.
Plans for the theater were originally drafted in 1998, officials said. The city’s suggestion comes at the end of the comment period for the Environmental Impact Review report. Once the comment period closes Friday, school officials will respond to the comments.
The City Council asked SMC officials Tuesday to research alternative parking arrangements, including a subterranean parking lot with a park on the surface level, and a parking structure.
Both scenarios would ideally include parking for community uses, council members said.
Mayor Richard Bloom said a number of residents have come to the council with congestion concerns. He said the school’s extensive pro-theater campaign has effectively silenced those voices.
But Zane and Don Girard, marketing director for the school, maintain that the proposed 301 spots are plenty for what they hope will become the cultural mecca of the westside. They say that theater-goers usually travel to events in groups of two or more and say the plans don’t allow performances and courses to occur on the same evening.
The city and SMC have a history of poor communication stemming from the impacts of the school’s unchecked growth over the past 20 years, said Bloom, who began his political career with a community group in Sunset Park, the neighborhood that borders SMC.
School officials conceded that the rapport between the two organizations needs work but said Wednesday the city is asking them to address a problem that doesn’t pertain to their project.
“The overwhelming concept has been positive,” Zane said “This project is really going to be a minor nuisance, not a genuine environmental problem for neighbors.”
To put the scale of the 536-seat proposed theater in perspective, the auditorium of John Adams Middle School seats 600, Zane said.
Assuming no major changes need to be made, the report will then go to SMC’s board of trustees, which is scheduled to vote on the project next month, said Bruce Smith, a spokesman for the college.
If everything goes forward as SMC officials hope, the Madison Theater will be open to the school’s music, theater and dance programs by 2005, officials said.
Zane said the theater will also be made available for Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District programs and for booking professional arts events.
Several celebrities — including Dustin Hoffman, Jeff Goldblum, David Duchovny, John Lithgow and Jerry Zucker — are in favor of the theater, said Joe Weichman, a supporter of the project.
Nearly half of the $15 million for the theater has already been raised by private donations and a $250,000 federal grant. Weichman said no other public money will be used to fund the project.
- Denny Zane, Madison Theater consultant
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 24, 2003. Read the original PDF.