The Santee Drive-In likely has shown its last movie, but a UC San Diego student hopes to save it from demolition through a petition drive seeking a historical designation for the site.
“The drive-in sign, massive 70-foot movie screens, vintage concessions, and other structures all hold priceless historical merit,” reads the Change.org petition launched by Gage Swaner. “Warehouses can be built anywhere. But once gone, the drive-in and its memories will be gone forever.”
The drive-in screened its last films Dec. 31 and has been closed ever since, except for weekend swap meets. North Palisades Partners of Los Angeles is seeking to purchase the property and has applied to build a 300,145-square-foot industrial building on the property.
Swaner’s petition speculates the building would be used for an Amazon warehouse, although North Palisades Partners has not announced what company would be on the property.
Swaner, 22, said the drive-in can live on as a historical site and as a resource for community events.
“We want to turn the property into a cultural and community hub for the city of Santee,” said Swaner, a Serra Mesa resident. “We want to hold a series of different types of events there all the time, and are not just music events. We want to hold youth-focused stuff. We want to hold film festivals. We want to hold food markets. We want to host flea markets and vintage markets and all sorts of different things that kind of showcase and bring together the community in San Diego.”
The effort may seem like a long shot, but also could be a David and Goliath story.
In 2002, the state Historical Resources Commission designated the Azusa Foothill Drive-In Theatre a historical landmark as the last drive-in on Route 66 west of Oklahoma.
Press reports at the time said the designation would make it harder for Azusa Pacific University to demolish the theater to make way for expanded campus facilities.
The effort didn’t work in the end and the campus has replaced the old drive-in, but the attempt has served as inspiration for Swaner, who has collected 1,000 signatures on his petition so far.
He has a goal of 4,000 or 5,000 signatures and plans to present the petition to the Santee City Council by the end of the year in hope of convincing them to nominate the site for historical recognition.
What happens after that isn’t clear or certain. The state Historical Resources Commission reserves the designation for sites that are of local significance and have “anthropological, cultural, military, political, architectural, economic, scientific or technical, religious, experimental, or other historical value,” according to the state’s California historical resources page.
Even if the historical recognition isn’t granted, Swaner said he hopes the nomination alone will be enough to save the drive-in.
Something that is certain, however, is that the property sale is not a done deal.
William Jacobs, senior development manager for North Palisade Partners, said in an email that the city of Santee is processing the company’s entitlement application, which includes the preparation of an environmental impact report, and the sale is expected to be complete sometime next year.
“Plans continue to move forward on the redevelopment of the former Santee Drive-in Theatre site,” he wrote. “Our goal remains to invest in the City of Santee and the East County community by developing a project that attracts businesses that create local jobs.”
Swaner already has organized an event aimed at showcasing the site’s potential. The Omens Odyssey music and art festival featured live music on three stages during the day, a DJ in the evening, and attracted about 1,000 people May 25.
While he said it went well, there also were complaints.
At the June 12 Santee City Council meeting, one resident from the neighborhood near the drive-in said he called the Sheriff’s Department because of the noise.
“I just don’t think anything like this should happen again,” he said. “It was unbearably loud.”
Jacobs also appeared at the meeting to reassure the public that North Palisade Partners had nothing to do with the festival.
“We’re taking all actions in our power to prevent this from happening again,” he said.
Santee Mayor John Minto said after receiving complaints about noise from the festival, he believes similar events should not be allowed.
“We did issue permits, but they violated every aspect of those permits,” he said. “If somebody comes forward, especially that company, we have absolute reason not to issue a permit like that again.”
City Manager Marlene Best also said there were concerns with the festival.
“The city would not support a similar event without significant changes,” she wrote in an email.
Swaner, an audio engineering student, said he did decibel readings throughout the event and they did not go above the city’s permitted decibel limits, but also said there were lessons learned.
“It was our first time and it was put on by students,” he said. “We learned a lot. In the future, we can work with professional sound people.”
