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THURSDAY January 15, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels Small theaters await council fix By Sean Wolfe Ashland Daily Tidings Ashland's City Council is well on its way to help off-Bardway theaters, but there's no rush, as the council rejected the notion of fast-tracking a legislative fix. At issue are zoning restrictions for employment zones - changed in 1998 to not include theaters as a permitted use in what council members and planning staff acknowledge as both an oversight, and a mistake. Fixing the mistake, however, is not coming quickly, and that penalizes the nascent theater group artattack which has been unable to open their theater in the old Cantwell's building for the last several months. While council staffers have generally been positive toward permitting new theaters as a conditional use - they approved the ordinance amendment's first reading last week - the change must go through two more readings before it's voted on, and that could take months. In the meantime, artattack has already announced the opening of its season on March 24, beginning with A Lion in Winter. It is unclear whether the council will have approved it by that looming deadline. While planning staff provided the council with the requisite "emergency language" to get the measure passed quickly, that option was rejected. According to City Councilor Cate Hartzell, the issue with fast-tracking ultimately came down to the emergency language, which stipulates that the council must find it "necessary for the public peace, health, safety and general welfare," to declare an emergency. "We want to honor good planning. But we have to ask ourselves, why are we doing this? How does this fit? We have to ask, do we set a precedent? Because if we do this now, we may get asked to use the emergency language to accommodate the next need, and the next," Hartzell said. The reluctance of the council to speed the ordinance fix forward frustrates Justin Lockwood, artattack's co-artistic director, a title he shares with his partner Nicole Isaacson-Hill. "Between the amount of money we've lost on the rent for the past eight months, and the lost revenue, it's well in excess of $10,000," Lockwood said. "It's almost surreal at this point. The Green Room, Oregon Stage Works, Nuwandart and others - they're not affected by this delay. The only people affected are us, so we're feeling rather picked on." Lockwood and Isaacson-Hill are the sole proprietors of the theater. To date, they have managed to finance the eight "dark months," by staging productions in The Green Room - a 60 seat theater run by partners Joshua Heuertz and Shallon Ferris - and by going into debt. Brent Thompson, who owns the Cantwell's building, said he had offered artattack the chance to get out of the lease once the problem with the ordinance first surfaced. The couple declined. Thompson - a former city councilor himself - is irritated at what he calls "council oversight." "Everybody acknowledges that it was a staff error that got us all into this position. Staff has said that the whole problem was a mistake. I believe that the council should fast-track this thing, and if by omission small theater groups are harmed, they need to acknowledge that would-be theaters are not bottomless pits of money," Thompson said. Hartzell said some responsibility must be shouldered by developers like Thompson, and Allen Sandler - who is seeking permission from the council to open his A Street Pavilion for performance events. "These developers are well-informed of the rules, and they should abide by them. But here you have two developers who went ahead, built these spaces, and rented them out," Hartzell said. For his own part, Thompson said he had been unaware of the restriction. "I never knew that use wasn't permitted. My copy of the ordinance went back to 1996 when they were permitted, and I'd no idea they'd changed the ordinance. The lease artattack signed had it that they had to take care of all the necessary approvals, and they took full ownership of that issue. Still, I offered them the chance to get out of the lease, and said if you want to bail, I'll put the place back together and get it rented, but they said, no, we want to stay," Thompson said. Artattack's desire to remain in the building underscores Ashland's shortage of viable space for theaters in a city for which theater is a primary industry. Artattack's theater in the Cantwell's building is both modest, and - given its unused condition - pristine. Boasting just 30 seats, it falls into the emerging category of a small, non-profit theater like The Green Room - housed in an industrial park on Hersey Street. Another nascent theater group, Oregon Stage Works, has arranged a temporary deal with the Ashland Springs Hotel to hold plays in the building's Elfinwood Room. To accommodate their plans to open next month - ordinance change or no - Lockwood said he has been working with city planning staff to secure a temporary use permit, which he expects to go through. "Debt or no debt, we're in this thing for the long haul. Also, I don't like being told I can't do something, and that keeps me encouraged," Lockwood said. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - ODOT Road Cams