Public Gives Madison Theater Thumbs Up

By Erica Williams
Staff Writer

April 3 -- The public applauded plans for a new 500-seat theater at Santa Monica College's Madison campus Wednesday night, welcoming the chance to catch first-rate performances in their backyard.

More than 50 eager supporters turned the Madison Advisory group meeting to discuss the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) into a rally for the theater, leaving a much smaller contingent of neighbors to raise concern's about the facility's impact on the residential neighborhood.

"I am very excited about this performing arts center," said Sophia Wolpert, an area resident who emigrated ten years ago from the former Yugoslavia, where she said theatre was a way of life despite crushing poverty.

"Where I lived, we walked half an hour to the theatre," Wolpert said to loud applause, adding that she couldn't believe a city as affluent as Santa Monica had no such public forum for the arts.

Former Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti said the theater -- which will be used for educational purposes and performances -- was especially important for seniors and children.

"To have something like this for seniors is pretty important," Garcetti said. He also recalled the impact arts programs had on kids being held in the detention centers he visited. "You see a passion, you see a love for something that they never had before," Garcetti said.

But some residents, along with City Councilman Michael Feinstein, questioned the impacts the facility -- which will cost an estimated $17 to $18 million -- will have on the neighborhood, as well as the extent of the recommended mitigations.

The draft EIR -- which requires the approval of the college's Board of Trustees -- found that the 32,000-square-foot theater at 11th Street and Arizona Avenue would have "significant" impacts on five of the 42 intersections it analyzed, but would otherwise have only minor impacts on the surrounding residential neighborhood.

The report found that traffic impacts could be mitigated by adding turn lanes, something that can only be done by the City, which has no jurisdiction over the project. (The City, however, has the same opportunity as the community to weigh in on the telephone-book sized report during a 45-day public comment period that ends April 25.)

"The college needs to coordinate with the City now to see if the City wants to participate with improvements," said David Shender, the traffic analyst for the project. If the City chose not to participate, Shender said, "The impacts will remain significant."

Feinstein, who represented the City on the advisory committee, criticized the report for offering only one alternative - re-striping surrounding streets to add turn lanes. The solution was not resident-friendly, he said, and was an approach "more typical of commercial neighborhoods.

"It puts us into a place where the only mitigation is one that is bad for the residents," Feinstein said. "The City's position will be that we haven't yet studied enough mitigation measures."

Feinstein also chided the college for "dismissing the City" at every turn and then saying that the City would be responsible for mitigation.

For three years, the proposed performing arts theatre on the Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District-owned site has been the staging ground for a political battle of wills between the 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.

The most vocal opposition Wednesday night came from Susan Suntree, a neighboring resident and member of the advisory group. Suntree, who is staunchly opposed to the project at its present site, agreed with Feinstein's assessment.

"This is out of scale with the neighborhood," Suntree said. "It belongs in an area that does not destroy (residential) neighborhoods."

Suntree, a writer and tenured faculty member at a college in Los Angeles, said the objection of neighboring residents was not to a theatre in the community but "to the invasion and colonization of a neighborhood."

But Suntree's remarks were roundly rejected by resident after resident, both on the advisory committee and in the audience.

"It's hard for me to understand how this could be opposed because it might require a sacrifice," said Rhoda Tuit, a piano teacher and Santa Monica resident since 1979 who also sits on the committee.

Donna Block, a resident, said she supported the project and anxiously awaited its start. She praised the college for having done "so many wonderful things with the community" and now providing students and performers in the community with "opportunities to get exposure" at a local venue.

"To me (a theatre) just really brings home all of the things we work so hard for," Block said.

Howard Myers, a senior and longtime resident, concurred that the performing arts center would be a welcome addition to the community, especially for kids in local schools who are deprived of experiencing the arts because the schools now have such little funding for arts programs.

"It will be an exciting and convenient place to hear performances," Myers added, noting that it was especially convenient for seniors, who have limited transportation options but have a heritage as longtime frequent patrons of the performing arts.

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.