The Lompoc City Council voted on Oct. 6 to sell its deed for the historic Lompoc Theatre to the local nonprofit, the Lompoc Theatre Project, for the fee of $1. The decision comes after years of wrangling by the Lompoc Theatre Project, which has plans to restore and renew the Lompoc Theatre.
The process was held up by months of bureaucratic formalities. The theater was owned by Lompoc Housing and Community Development Corporation (LHCDC), which was suspended by the State of California and the IRS due to failure to file tax forms, according to a release from the Lompoc Theatre Project. The local nonprofit has to wait 90 days for the building to foreclose. Then it will own the theater outright, without any of LHCDC debts on the property after the back property tax is paid, explained Lompoc Theatre Project Executive Director Mark Herrier in the release.
“In spite of the legal nightmares and missed opportunities, all of the money that was given for the preservation of the theater has not been lost,” he said in the release, “but in fact now remains forever in the building, as was intended in the first place.”
Herrier thanked the numerous volunteers and donors who have supported the Lompoc Theatre Project, but also thanked Lompoc city government and Mayor Bob Lingl for leading the charge to “cut through the Gordian Knot” and help the organization procure its namesake.
More information is available at lompoctheatre.org.
This article appears in Oct 22-29, 2015.
