Pimentel's claim of 12 year plan for Third Street theater discredited again

On February 1, 2010, the Daily Democrat reported that: Councilman and Vice Mayor Art Pimentel said a theater at the Third and Main site was in the Downtown Specific Plan since the plan's inception 12 years ago. He was quoted, "What frustrates me a little bit is we have had this plan developed already... Now for whatever reason all of a sudden you have some objections to what we have said for the last 12 years."

The current Downtown Specific Plan was adopted in March, 2003. That is when the idea for two different downtown theater locations was presented. Not 12 years ago. The document is an update of the downtown plan that was adopted in 1993 when a possible Third and Main cinema was not even on the radar. The Third and Main theater complex (and parking garage) idea was a scheme devised by the former city manager Richard Kirkwood in speculation of the new Woodland Courthouse locating near Third and Main, a block north at Third and Court.

The City of Woodland Downtown Specific Plan adopted in August, 1993, is possibly the "plan" to which Pimentel referred when he suggested that the Third Street theater project is at least 12 years old. In that plan, there is no mention of a proposed theater at that site – the Hoblit auto dealer site. In fact, under Actions, page 25, item 8 states: "Take all appropriate actions to retain the existing downtown theaters." On page 12, the document reads: "Area B is intended to contain all retail, dining, and entertainment use within the Downtown Area," which is the Main Street corridor that extends from Walnut to East Street as mapped in the plan. The State Theatre is within Area B, and has been there since 1937.

So if the merits of a downtown theater are based on how old a plan is, then the city should "take all appropriate actions to retain the existing downtown theaters" according to the logic of Pimentel.