Granada IV: Return Of The Renovators

Flashback sequence: Granada Theatre stands idle. Echoes of Bogie and Woody Allen fade from the aisles. Enter renovators. Protestors hold candlelight vigil to mourn closing of Greenville Avenue monument, Building inspectors swoop in a la Keystone Kops at behest of neighbors with “No More Bars” mentality. Would-be renovators lose thousands in delayed opening costs.

Fade to present: The drama slides into a comedy of errors as the real source of the trouble is discovered.

All along, the Granada’s problems have hinged on a peculiar zoning restriction that limited parking on an adjoining lot to theater use. Neighborhood activists, who believed that the new Granada would be a bar/ restaurant, cried foul. The city later agreed and pulled the building permit. Now, it turns out that there are no such restrictions. A notation alluding to such a restriction, penned years ago by some anonymous clerk, was found in the city’s plat books and mistaken for a legally binding restriction. Oops.

Soon after this issue of D hits the newsstands, the new Granada Theatre should be open to the public… but don’t hold us to it.