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OSF, Ashland hash out lease Decision deferred to future meeting By Dani Dodge of the Mail Tribune ASHLAND -- At a meeting with the City Council Thursday, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival set out what it wants in a lease with the city, and what it doesn't want. A long-term lease of 50 or 75 years would be great. But restricting performances during that time would be disastrous, festival board members said. "I don't think you can put a lid on things for 50 years," said Festival board member Chuck Butler. "Would (restaurant owner) Michael Donovan be restricted on the number of dinners ... or I on the number of cars I can sell?" Sixteen people spoke to the council on the issue, both for and against the idea of putting restrictions on the number of performances and number of stages that should be allowed at the festival. The goal of Thursday's meeting was to allow the festival board to talk directly to the City Council about issues surrounding the festival's lease with the city. The council did not make a decision at Thursday's meeting, deciding to hold a special meeting where they will further consider the issue. A date for that meeting has not been set. The city owns the property under the festival buildings as well as the parking lot. The lease must be renewed and changed to accommodate a new theater the festival wants to build to replace the Black Swan Theatre. Initial plans call for the new theater to be four levels and between 25,000 to 30,000 square feet. The festival wants to put the theater on a portion of the current Hargadine parking lot, while making the rest of the parking lot into a double-decker structure. But before the new theater is built, the festival and the city must agree on lease arrangements. The plans for the new structures also will have to pass muster with the city's planning commission. Planning staff members who looked at the architectural designs in a pre-application meeting, though, said last month that the festival's architect needs to correct a number of issues before staff could recommend the package to the planning commission. Staff cited problems with the driveway configuration, landscaping and pedestrian routes through the parking lot, and blank walls designed to face Hargadine Street. "In staff's opinion, the current architecture deviates too far from the downtown standards and proposes a structure contrasting too much with the surrounding development," a portion of the staff report read. Festival executive director Paul Nicholson said Thursday the festival got exactly what it wanted in the pre-application meeting. "They gave us clear guidelines and direction," he said. "By the time we are ready for application we will be exactly in compliance." The festival hopes to begin construction on the new theater by next fall or winter, and open the new theater by the beginning of the 2002 season. At Thursday's meeting, the festival laid out eight issues they've heard that need to be discussed in the lease negotiations: the future right to build above the new parking lot; reimbursement for building the parking lot; the number of performances in the new theater; the use of the Black Swan as a performance space; public use of Black Swan and Carpenter Hall for performances; the lease agreement for the parking lot; and the length of the lease. The issue that got the most discussion Thursday was whether the city should write restrictions on the festival's growth into the lease. Festival board members said they wanted the option of using the Black Swan Theatre for small solo performances and one-person shows, and that it's important the festival have the opportunity to shift with changes in the market over the years. Councilwoman Carole Wheeldon, who worked for the festival for 20 years, agreed. "The festival needs to explore its artistic potential and not be hampered by a lease," Wheeldon said. A number of people from the audience also spoke in favor of just writing a straight-ahead lease. "I certainly don't think the city should limit the arts," said Chuck Keil. "Places like the Soviet Union tried and have not been successful." But Councilman Don Laws and a number of audience members said they weren't comfortable with the chance that occasional use of the Black Swan by a solo performer would grow into a 365-day a year venture. Laws suggested that the city should write a lease up with the festival's growth predictions included, and then if the festival wanted to grow beyond that in the future the lease would need to be renegotiated. And several members of the audience said the city's parking lot proposed for the theater should be looked at as a city asset, and not something to give away. "I'd like to see the city's assets be use to build houses for the homeless," said Phil Selby. "Rather than putting more money into something already a success." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA