The Honorable Council Member,

This past Monday evening I attended the meeting of El Camino Downtown Vision Plan as I have attended most of the other previous sessions At that meeting the proposed Draft stated and I quote "Utilize the Park Theatre site as a cultural amenity complementary to Downtown" For the record, I am opposed to this property being pigeon holed as a cultural amenity. As many of you know, Mr. Tom Hillogoss has an option to purchase the Park Theater. For this I am in agreement and support his efforts. He states that he wants to restore the theater and open it up for all kinds of community uses and do it profitably. However, Mr. Hilligoss has recently expressed to me concerns that he may not be able to exercise his option. He is concerned he won't be able to supply the needed parking. I am concerned his plan will not make economic sense. This is not unlike the failed Andy Duncan deal last fall where in the end it did not make economic sense. Should Mr. Hilligoss be successful everything will turn out fine. But should he also discover that he can't make it work financially, we will be stuck with a building that again demonstrates that the cultural amenity cannot be supported by the private sector. We will have painted ourselves in a corner. I hope the day will come soon when the council will see that for anything to happen at this site, it will have to make economic sense. Until then, this asset of the city and an asset of mine will continue to sit idle benefiting no one. I urge you to amend the final vision plan to treat the Park Theater like all the other buildings on the El Camino Thank you for your consideration Received on Sat May 31 09:40:00 2008