HomeMy WebLinkAbout1988-0719 PERFORMG ARTS FINDING7'-/?- Eg
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FINDINGS ON THE ASHLAND PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
Old Ashland Armory, Inc., a non-profit corporation
doing business as the Ashland Performing Arts Center,
will convert the 26,000 square foot old Ashland Armory
into a three theatre performing arts, visual arts,
film, and educational complex comprising an 800-seat
concert hall, a 99-seat film gallery/performance space,
and a 75-seat flexible theatre, along with galleries,
rehearsal studios and exhibition space; and
The project will extend the boundaries of the
traditional downtown commercial district of Ashland to
encompass the commercial section of the Historic
Railroad District; and
The Ashland Performing Arts Center is within the
boundaries of the Ashland Downtown Plan, which states:
"The City is also in need to diversify and improve its
offerings in the field of Performing Arts ... The
proposed Ashland P~rforming Arts Center offers the best
possibility that Ashland can develop a second arts
center that is different (from), but equally famous to,
the Shakespeare Festival" and "the existence of
performing arts in substantial quality and quantity has
many benefits ... to the tourist related businesses.
New initiatives should be supported" and "the Ashland
Performing Arts Center is essential to diversify the
economy of Downtown."; and
Through its $3.75 million impact on the regional
economy it will assist the communities of Southern
Oregon in general, and Ashland in particular, to
develop a year-round economy; and
The Ashland Performing Arts Center will generate
fourteen new full-time positions with salaries ranging
from $15,000 to $35,000 for a total annual
administrative payroll of $230,000; and
Sixteen permanent part-time position with total payr011
of $100,000 will be created; and
The total economic impact from the creation of new jobs
will be $830,000; and
Thirty-five
created; and
temporary
construction jobs will be
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The development is clearly within the guidelines
adopted in the Ashland Comprehensive Plan, through the
renovation of a local resource listed in the National
Register of Historic Places "which provides a strategic
link to Ashland's past": "The City shall not
encourage economic growth, but rather economic
development of the local resources. The City's policy
is that economic development shall always have as its
primary purpose the better utilization of local
resources, both human and natural ... Recognizing that
such investments can be substantial .. it is justified
that the City participate in 'this development
process.";and
The Ashland Performing Arts Center will encourage the
growth and development of the City's existing arts and
cultural institutions through the provision of improved
performance and exhibition space and administrative
services; and
The Ashland Performin~ Krts Cen~er will provide
performing and exhibition space for numerous Oregon
and National arts institutions and thereby offer
cultural diversity to the citizens of Ashland and its
visitors; and
Representatives of the following institutions:
Northwest Bach Ensemble, Rogue Valley Symphony,
Southern Oregon State College, Rogue Valley Opera,
Oregon State Ballet, Lyric Theatre Company, Actors
Workshop, Arts Council of Southern Oregon, Folk Music
Club, Quartz Theatre and Britt Festival have provided
consultation as to facility and administrative
development; and
The Ashland Performing Arts Center has embarked on the
fulfillment of its educational mission through the
development of SummerArts, an intensive four-week arts
training program for school-aged area children; and
The Ashland Performing Arts Center has further
indicated its commitment to its community through the
offering of free public events of historic significance
in area parks; and finally
The State of Oregon has demonstrated the value of this
project to its citizens by awarding a $500,000 matching
Economic Development Grant to Old Ashland Armory, Inc.
dba Ashland Performing Arts Center to'provide capital
improvements to the facilities, about which L. Gordon
Medaris, mayor of the City of Ashland has stated "this
project was recognized by the 1987 Oregon legislature
as precisely the kind of economic development effort
that will bring the region tangible results."
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NOW THEREFOR IT IS THE FINDING by the Mayor and City Council of
the City of Ashland, exercising its legislative power as granted
by Article II, Section~of the City Charter, that, IN FULL
RECOGNITION, that each and every clause above demonstrates that
the Ashland Performing Arts Center would perform a public purpose
and is found to be in the best interests of the Citizens of
Ashland and that the City should support such a project for both
its short term and long term impact (and) that said project fully
and adequately meets the needs of the Public, sufficient to
justify governmental involvement and establish social utility, and
can be aided by the City for all or any of the reasons above
given.
Findings read and approved at a regular meeting of the City
Council of the City of Ashland on the 19th day of July 1988.
Mayor
City Re order
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