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Miramar Theater renovation advancing; sight‑line and design details to be resolved
Summary
Planning staff updated the commission on the Miramar Theater and adjacent bowling‑alley food‑hall renovation. Staff said interior restoration and tenant fit‑out work is underway, but the applicant must demonstrate safe sight lines at a nearby traffic movement and address a design element that drew divergent advisory comments at design review.
City planning staff provided a photographic update on the Miramar Theater project (North Beach), describing ongoing interior work and several outstanding design and traffic‑safety issues. Jonathan, the city planner, showed commissioners photographs of recent construction activity in the former bowling alley (to be reused as a food hall) and in the theater auditorium, noting finishes, replicated lighting and recovered interior materials such as salvaged bowling‑alley floor used for a bar top.
Staff told the commission the developer had completed significant interior restoration steps and had obtained a masonry replacement and replicated pendant lighting for the theater’s decorative features. Photographs shown at the meeting included the food‑hall concessions area, a roll‑up window facing the beach, and the theater auditorium’s restored plaster and wood elements.
Two planning matters remain open. First, staff said the project team must provide an engineered sight‑line analysis where traffic will turn right from the project onto El Camino Real; the county’s safe sight‑line standard must be met for vehicles exiting the site. Second, a design‑level disagreement recorded in the design review subcommittee related to the proposed enclosure and fountain element in front of the marquee: some advisory members urged preserving the 45‑degree marquee view while others accepted the applicant’s proposed feature. Jonathan said staff would ask the applicant to overlay the county sight‑line geometry on their plans and then determine whether the project can be approved administratively or should proceed to a noticed public hearing; if staff approves administratively, notice and appeal rights to the commission would still apply.
Commissioner Steve Camp and other advisory members had urged stronger preservation of the marquee and key exterior character elements; Council Member Rick Loeffler — present in the audience — commended staff and the applicant for salvaging original materials and said he would like to see original finishes reused when feasible.
No final decision was made at the meeting. Staff said the next steps are for the applicant to submit the sight‑line documentation and any revised drawings, after which staff will decide whether the action can be processed administratively or should go to a public hearing. If processed administratively, members of the public would be notified and could appeal to the Planning Commission.
