A group of movie buffs and community members seeking to stop Planet Fitness from taking over East Santa Rosa’s Summerfield Cinema lost an appeal Thursday.
But attorneys representing the group and property owners said they are discussing a deal that could keep the independent theater afloat.
It is not yet clear what that compromise will look like.
Derek Stephan, a member of the Somerfield Preservation Citizens Committee, said the group is meeting with property owners to consider alternatives that would allow the theater to survive, such as dividing the shopping center into smaller lots and selling the theater building. They reportedly talked about business models.
Plans for Planet Fitness were first submitted to the city in September 2023, as the Lakeside Shopping Center, where the theater is located, was in escrow to a new owner.
The Santa Rosa Planning Commission on Thursday upheld an earlier approval to allow construction of a health and fitness center at 551 Summerfield Road. The decision was made despite petitions from around 25 theater supporters. They showed up in person, and many more wrote letters to the city asking the commission not to use the theater.
The Somerfield Commission and other advocates say theaters are essential to the fabric of local communities, and large corporate-owned gyms would take away from the atmosphere cultivated there by locally owned businesses. He said it would be.
The campaign said in its July 29 appeal that the gym is inconsistent with the property’s land use and zoning designation, which requires limited retail services to meet the daily needs of nearby residents. claimed to have done so.
On Thursday, planning commissioners sympathized with local residents’ concerns and praised the group’s efforts to prevent the theater’s closure. But they countered that it was not within their authority to dictate what private owners, subject to city regulations, should do with their property and businesses.
“We appreciate all the emotion that comes with the loss of this theater,” Commissioner Patti Sisco said. “Since the pandemic, I think we’ve all experienced the loss of a beloved business. I know I’ve done that, and I’m sure others have too. It’s tough. .”
Cisco and other commissioners say their scope of work is limited to determining whether a proposed use is appropriate in a particular location and that the project is consistent with city planning regulations. He said he agreed with the staff on this point.
Paul Seiff, a member of the Summerfield campaign, said the decision was disappointing.
“We were disappointed that the Planning Commission did not recognize that the Lakeside area is a neighborhood location for small businesses that are not zoned for businesses like Planet Fitness,” he said. “This is by no means a small fitness club.”
The appellants claim that the scope of the project is too large for the area.
Thursday’s public hearing comes after Santa Rosa Zoning Administrator Christinae Toumians approved July 18 an application for a small conditional use permit and a small design review permit to allow Planet Fitness. This was done in response to this.
Trinity Winslow, owner of the nearby business Aquarius Sewing and a member of the Summerfield movement, filed an appeal.
Winslow said at the appeals court and Thursday’s hearing that businesses in nearby commercial districts like Lakeside are targeted for smaller businesses such as local grocery stores, restaurants, barbershops, dry cleaners and other retail stores. He said that he is doing so.
Winslow said the large gym does not fit within the zoning district, arguing that no other corporate-owned gym in the city is within the nearby commercial zone.
He said allowing Planet Fitness to move in would allow other chain stores to move in and displace small businesses in the shopping center.
“Approving this permit would be the green light to incorporate this district, remove everything that is healthy, raise rents and drive out other small businesses,” Winslow said.
traffic problem
The Somerfield Commission also challenged the validity of a traffic study conducted by the property owner that found the gym was used less than 50 times during peak morning and afternoon hours.
In their appeal, Winslow and the group said the study was flawed and based on outdated data that didn’t take into account Planet Fitness’ popularity or traffic from outside the neighborhood.
Using Planet Fitness membership data, the group estimated that the gym makes 14,400 trips a week, or 160 trips during peak hours.
Planners in a report prepared ahead of the meeting said the traffic memo was prepared by a qualified engineer and reviewed by the city’s traffic engineer.
Staff said in their report that the appellants provided documentation to refute the validity of the traffic memo and to show that the gym would generate significantly more traffic than existing usage. I wrote that I have not.
