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Panel OKs Theater Alcohol Request

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 12, 2008

WESLEY CHAPEL - Pasco County planning commissioners cleared Cobb Theatres to serve alcohol at the company's 16-screen megaplex under development at The Grove at Wesley Chapel shopping center.

The commissioners' action did not address Cobb's pending request for an exemption to county rules banning the sale of alcohol within 1,000 feet of a church. A rear corner of the theater is 827 feet from Faith Baptist Church.

County commissioners will consider the exemption July 8. A vote against it would block alcohol sales at the theater. Commissioners have indicated they are likely to approve the exemption with limitations.

Alabama-based Cobb plans to include in its 2,700-seat facility a second-floor "cinebistro," a restaurant that would serve alcoholic beverages. Theater patrons would be allowed to eat meals in specially designated balconies open to adults 21 and older.

The restaurant would be open to all ages, but a patron's age would be checked upon entering the adult-only balconies, said Cobb attorney Lou Terminello.

The theater's design would be similar to one operating at Centro Ybor in Tampa. It would also be a copy of a Cobb cinema in Miami-Dade County.

Members of Faith Baptist Church repeated their objections to the proposed alcohol sales at the Cobb facility. Scott Naill, the church's pastor, raised the specter of drunk drivers leaving the theater who would be a threat to children in the neighborhood and members of the church.

"We're concerned about impaired drivers," Naill said.

Cobb's spokesmen argued that the cinema meets the county's requirements for an exemption to the 1,000-foot limit on alcohol sales because the property is separated from the church by retention ponds and a stand of pine trees. The pines completely block the theater from the view of people at the church.

County commissioners reviewed the exemption in April but delayed final action until planning commissioners could vote on the conditional use.

At the time, commissioners recommended limiting the sale of alcohol at the theater to after 5 p.m. to avoid conflicts with church activities.

On Wednesday, Terminello objected to that limit, saying it would put the theater's restaurant at a disadvantage to other restaurants in the plaza and beyond it.

Land planner King Helie, speaking on behalf of Cobb, argued that the 29-year-old 1,000-foot rule is outdated and does not take into account the size of modern retail buildings. If the county measured the distance to the church from the section of theater serving alcohol, the distance would be more than 1,000 feet, Helie said.

Clarke Hobby, another Cobb attorney, said the ground-level theater will be turned over to a satellite facility of Lifepoint Community Church of Tampa, which recently opened a facility in New Tampa.

Planning commissioners removed the 5 p.m. limitation from their recommendation, setting up a potential conflict with county commissioners when they re-examine the exemption next month.

Also at Wednesday's meeting, planning commissioners:

• Approved alcohol sales at a Beef 'O'Brady's restaurant planned for the Wilderness Commons strip mall under construction on U.S. 41 at the entrance of Wilderness Lake Preserve.

• Denied a request by Trilby landowner Theresa Johnson to put a second rental mobile home on land she owns off U.S. 301. Residents objected to the plan, saying the proposal would create more problems for the community north of Dade City.

• Approved a temporary, two-year rezoning for an office complex on State Road 54 to allow the facility, which is under construction, to be used for the Imagine School of Land O' Lakes, a charter school. School officials have not gotten county approval for their planned school site near the Sunset Lakes subdivision on the west side of U.S. 41 in Land O' Lakes. The rezoning limited the school to 420 students.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or

kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

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