Theater passes 1st screening

WASILLA — A developer says he plans to build a movie theater in Wasilla and has crossed his first checkpoint at the city’s planning commission.

John Schweiger, who had little time to talk this week before he hopped on a plane, said he’s been working on the project for a little over a year.

Jim Holycross, Wasilla’s planning director, said Schweiger applied to take 12 acres of the 29-acre parcel next to Wal-Mart on Seward-Meridian Parkway and rezone it from rural residential to commercial. The remaining 17 acres will remain residential. Schweiger said he plans to build a theater on the 12-acre commercial plot.

Holycross said the re-zoning request cleared the planning commission unanimously and next moves on to Wasilla City Council for a hearing at its Nov. 24 meeting.

“It appears to meet the criteria and it’s pretty straightforward,” Holycross said of the plan.

From here, Holycross said, Schweiger will have to enter a process known as a conditional use permit site design review, where the city will look at issues such as drainage and access to the site.

Schweiger’s company Web site lists 21 theaters under the aegis of Coming Attractions Theatres, all in Oregon, Washington or Northern California. The Web site lists Schweiger as the founder, saying he began the company when he worked to renovate a theater in 1985 in Ashland, Ore.

In Wasilla, people seem to be excited by the prospect of a another movie theater, Schweiger said.

“If you were going to put in a theater in New York City it’d be no big deal. But in Wasilla, it’s an event,” he said.

The Valley already has a movie theater — Mat-Su Cinema, which sits on the Parks Highway not far from where Schweiger plans to build his complex.

Reached by cell phone while out of state Thursday, owner Sandy Morgan said she hasn’t heard the news and could not yet comment.

Schweiger said he had help from Cheryl Metiva at the Wasilla Chamber of Commerce and her husband, Marty Metiva, a city councilman and mayoral candidate who will face attorney Verne Rupright in a runoff election Oct. 28. Metiva said his involvement has been mainly through Mat-Su Resource Conservation and Development Council, a non-profit organization he serves as executive director.

“It’s [a] distribution point for information and contacts to make sure they’ve been able to reach the people they need to talk to,” Marty Metiva said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.