Report Studies Madison Theater Impacts

By Jorge Casuso

March 31 -- A new 500-seat theater facility at Santa Monica College’s Madison campus will have "significant" impacts at five intersections, but will otherwise have only minor impacts on the surrounding residential neighborhood, according to an Environmental Impact Report released by the college.

The draft EIR, which will be discussed at a Madison Advisory group meeting Wednesday night, requires the approval of the college’s Board of Trustees but not of the City, which will have the same opportunity to comment on the telephone-book sized report as the public.

The report -- which college officials say is perhaps the most comprehensive document of its kind for a comparable project -- goes beyond the City’s request to analyze the impacts of the 32,000-square-foot theater at 11th Street and Arizona Avenue on 42 intersections.

The EIR, college officials said, updates the traffic data at each of those intersections by taking into account projects approved or built since 1999, when the City conducted its latest traffic counts

“It’s the first comprehensive EIR that the college has undertaken,” said Don Girard, an SMC official. “We looked at intersections at the request of the City. We were asked for public scoping and we honored the comments we received.”

The draft EIR, which will be changed to reflect the input gathered during a 45-day public comment period, identifies the following “potential significant impacts:”

• Portions of the project exceed the height restrictions of the Medium Density Multiple Family Residential District. However, the project height - which will reach 70 feet above grade level at its highest point -- “produces no significant off-site Shade, Shadow or View impacts.”
  
• Parking lot noise when theatergoers leave at night may slightly increase the noise level, which cannot be mitigated.
  
• Five of the 42 intersections studied may experience significant impacts. The intersections, none of which have traffic signals, are Santa Monica Boulevard at 9th, 10th, 12th and Euclid streets and Wilshire Boulevard at 10th Street.

To evaluate the impacts, the study used the City’s criteria, which “are very strict, with an increase of as little as one car to an intersection triggering the finding of a significant impact in certain situations,” according to a summary of the draft EIR released by the college.

The most “significant” traffic impacts identified in the report would increase traffic by as many as 75 cars in intersections that see between 1,880 and 2,300 cars pass every hour. The traffic impacts could be mitigated by adding turn lanes, which is something only the City can do, according to the EIR.

It is unclear what the City’s role in the final project will be. In fact, for three years, the proposed performing arts theater on the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District-owned site has been the staging ground for a political battle of wills between college and City officials.

The college has always maintained that it has the jurisdiction to move ahead without City approvals, while City officials feel the community should have a greater say in a decision that will affect a residential neighborhood.

“I still think it’s an inappropriate project for the city as a whole,” said Councilman Ken Genser. “It appears to me they intentionally modified the project so the City wouldn’t have a say.”

In order to skirt the City’s jurisdiction, Genser said, the college changed the original focus of the theater from a performing arts venue to an educational facility that only requires the approval of the college board. The college also dropped plans to tear down the old school auditorium, a move that would have required the review of the City, Genser said.

College officials say the theater - which will cost an estimated $17 to $18 million -- will be used for educational purposes and performances during the day and at night.

In addition, they add that the project will allow students to meet new admission requirements that kick in next fall at the University of California and California State University. The requirements call for completion of one year of coursework in visual and performing arts.

“The project enhances the ability to provide community college instructional alternatives to meet the new admission requirement, and remedies existing SMC facility deficiencies in support of performance in music and dance and in support of visiting artists in music dance, theater and lecture,” according to a summary of the EIR.

Besides being an educational forum, the theater -- which has the backing of such luminaries as Dustin Hoffman, Placido Domingo, Lula Washington, Edward James Olmos and Mikhail Baryshnikov -- is expected to be a major performance venue for the Westside.

"It's not just a college theater," college president Piedad Robertson told The Lookout in October 1999, shortly after the college announced its plans. "We're trying to get people to begin thinking this is where you come for performances. It can be used by community groups, for concerts, graduations."

The public meeting to discuss the EIR will be held Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the Madison campus cafeteria.