And what a gift that was, because the drive-in managed to ride a wave of interest during the pandemic asNot everyone understood the urgency. One poor soul on
It turns out the project was approved not last spring but in recent weeks. The Planning Commission gave the OK on Nov. 28, on a 5-0 vote, and the City Council on Dec. 19, also by 5-0. For many years a neighborhood shopping center seemed likely. But that part of the city is primarily industrial, and the site’s distance from freeways made it less appealing for retail even before e-commerce began taking over, Diaz observed.
“A developer could have come in and said, ‘I want to construct one large building of 600,000 square feet,’” Mayor John Dutrey said at the meeting. “It probably would have attracted a lot more trucks and trailers.” A rendering of the Mission and Ramona Business Park that will replace the Mission Tiki Drive-In in Montclair, looking southeast from State Street. The drive-in theater, which opened in 1956, closed for good Jan. 22.
The previous opposition was about loss of a community gathering space and loss of a historic resource. Diaz pointed out that De Anza’s sale to Oakmont was a private business transaction and that government “does not have the authority to compel the property owner to continue the operation” as a drive-in.