Theaters get landmark designation

June Casagrande

The City Council approved a landmark buildings ordinance on Tuesday

that will allow the Port Theatre to add food service and

entertainment.

“I’m very much in favor of the Port Theatre becoming a landmark

theater,” Corona del Mar resident Luvena Hayton said.

The ordinance offers no official protection or historical status

to the four landmarks it affects: the Port Theatre, the Balboa

Theater, the Lido Theater and the Balboa Pavilion. Instead, it lets

the businesses add some features without having to apply for permits.

Port Theatre supporters, though, see the ordinance as a way to

protect the historic theater’s future by giving its owners more ways

to make a profit from the business. Tod Ridgeway announced last month

that the Port’s owner, Rick Aversano, plans to change the business,

removing about 600 of the 900 seats and adding a restaurant and other

new services.

The landmark buildings ordinance requires the three theaters to

remain primarily theaters. But it lets them use up to 30% of their

space for a restaurant, live entertainment, arcade and other uses. It

also forbids the buildings from making any big changes to their

exteriors except to restore them to their original condition. The

ordinance contains a provision that any new use of the buildings

can’t create increased demand for street parking.

City Councilman Dick Nichols recused himself from the vote because

his home is fewer than 500 feet from the site. He took a seat among

the audience to participate in the discussion as a resident.

“This doesn’t make any sense,” said Nichols, who has worried that

the plan will create parking problems because many of the Port’s

allotted spaces are used by patrons of other businesses. Nichols

suggested moving the theater to the site of the current Corona del

Mar post office or to Mariners Mile.

“I think residents as a whole want to keep the theater,” Corona

del Mar resident and business leader B.J. Johnson said.

Aversano sent a letter to council members on Monday encouraging

them to support the ordinance, but he did not attend the council

meeting.

“I share the City Council’s collective interest in the

preservation and adaptive reuse of historic buildings as a means of

revitalizing the older commercial areas,” Aversano wrote.

* JUNE CASAGRANDE covers Newport Beach and John Wayne Airport.

She may be reached at (949) 574-4232 or by e-mail at

[email protected].