That the City Council receive and file this status update for the proposed Immersion Theater expansion project at the Children's Museum and provide direction to staff regarding:

A.  Approval of the final site location for the proposed Immersion Theater building;

B. Approval of a funding appropriation in an amount equal to half the cost, not to exceed $50,000 (whichever is lower), from available City Facility Improvement reserves, for site plans, architectural designs and building plans for the proposed new building; and,

C.  A City funding commitment for this project, in an amount not to exceed $400,000, that will be used to help construct the new proposed building, subject to City Council review of the final building plan and design at a future date, and subject to full private project funding for the project being secured prior to the City’s contribution being utilized.

The City of La Habra owns and operates the La Habra Children’s Museum. Helping support that independent operation, the City has maintained a long-standing partnership with the Friends of the La Habra Children’s Museum (Friends), which is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization that has worked closely with the City since 1988 to further support the Museum’s operations with both grant and private funding, and to realize the Museum’s mission “to encourage enthusiasm about learning in a hands-on environment that opens the world to even the youngest child”. In support of securing new sources of revenue for the Children’s Museum, as well as providing new forms of contemporary programming, Mr. Kent Roberts, a longtime Friends board member, has proposed the construction of a new building expansion to the existing Children’s Museum facility to house a novel specialized immersion theater concept (Attachment 1 Site Plan and Attachment 2 Overhead Map).

Mr. Roberts has estimated a building and construction cost of approximately $1.6 million (Attachment 3 Cost Plan) for the new structure and has indicated that he has already secured $1.2 million in private funding commitments for the project. The Friends are seeking final City Council approval for the project, as well as a commitment of $400,000 from City funds to be used for the construction of the new building. If approved and constructed, the new building would be owned by the City of La Habra and operated by the Children’s Museum. Children’s Museum staff, in cooperation with the Friends, would be responsible to design and produce appropriate visual content, develop new admission and facility rental rates, and incorporate the operation of the immersion theater into their regular daily duties. 
 
BACKGROUND
The La Habra Children’s Museum (Museum) was established in 1977 after a five-year planning process that involved reviewing museum operations “best practices,” developing financing support, hiring professional staff, and renovating the 1923 train depot building at Portola Park as a permanent location for the new museum.  The Museum was expanded in 1989 through a capital expansion fundraising project that started in 1987.  The expansion tripled the size of the building to 12,500 square feet and added much needed exhibit space, a classroom and a gift shop. The Children’s Museum at La Habra was the first dedicated children’s museum in Southern California and continues to attract approximately 95,000 patrons a year (mainly children) with exhibits focusing on arts, sciences, culture, nature, conservation and everyday life. 

The Museum has been owned and operated by the City since its inception. In the past the Museum was significantly subsidized by the City's General Fund to help run programs essential to the operation of the Museum, as it had operated with annual deficits for many years. In 2001, the City Council determined that it was unable to continue the significant annual investment of General Fund resources to support Museum operations. Despite the Museum operating as an Enterprise Fund (a City controlled entity that is expected to be self-sustaining by paying its own operating costs through admissions, fund-raising activities, and grants, with minimal to no impact to the General Fund), the City and the Friends agreed that admission fees would need to be increased and that the City would continue to contribute $85,000 each fiscal year towards operating costs. The Friends, in turn, agreed to expand their fundraising activity to cover more of the Museum’s operating costs. Then in 2010, due to extensive budget cuts at the time, the City’s General Fund support for Museum Operations ended.
 
PROPOSED IMMERSION THEATER PROJECT
Mr. Roberts approached the City in 2016 with a concept to build a new immersion theater facility immediately adjacent to the existing Children's Museum building. The original project concept proposed the construction of a brand new 5,000 square foot wood frame building along the northern edge of the existing Museum. The original building concept included architecture to closely mimic the existing Children’s Museum style and would have occupied a significant portion of Portola Park adjacent to one of the City's Little League baseball fields. The building was envisioned to house an “immersion theater” offering “exhibits based on high-definition projection technology that creates a stunning audio-visual experience” (Attachment 4 - Theme Ideas).  High definition still and motion video imagery would be projected on the exhibit’s walls, screens and floor, accompanied by music and audio soundtracks. 

The inspiration for this concept theater was the Chateau des Carrieres de Lumieres (Quarries of Light) located in a very large repurposed quarry in the town of Les Baux de Provence in France (http://carrieres-lumieres.com/en). Each 35 to 40 minute show at the Quarries of Light is comprised of thousands of digitized images of works of art that are projected onto all the quarry’s surfaces, moving to a custom designed music soundtrack. Mr. Robert’s vision for the proposed immersion theater in La Habra was to mimic this type of visual and audio display, but on a smaller scale inside of a 5,000 square foot building.

The sentiment expressed by Mr. Roberts and various members of the Friends at the time was that the immersion theater concept would infuse a unique and exciting new element to the Children’s Museum experience. The intent of the new theater concept, possibly the first of its kind on this scale in the United States at the time, was to increase interest in the Children's Museum and attract visitors from throughout the region, resulting in a new sustainable stream of revenue to help support Museum operations. The venue was also envisioned to provide La Habrans with a new place to visit and hold events, with the goal of becoming a destination point for educational, cultural, and social interaction.

Over the course of several years, staff analyzed the project proposal including reviewing feasibility studies provided by Mr. Roberts, along with numerous plan redesigns. The analysis also assessed the existing demand for banquet and meeting space at other City facilities, and evaluated the overall concept of Immersion Theater style pop-ups that were occurring nationwide, some of which are no longer in operation.

Staff presented the immersion theater concept to the City Council at its meeting on June 3, 2019 (Attachment 5 Agenda Item), seeking direction regarding the proposed expansion project. At that time, City Council conditionally approved of the project concept, contingent upon staff:

Since that meeting, the project site, scope, size and cost has changed significantly. With respect to the requirements previously set forth by City Council, staff can report the following:
 

Requirement #1: Securing no more than $400,000 in allowable non-General Fund resources as the City’s contribution for the proposed immersion theater project:

Without a final project approval, design and bid in hand, staff has had limited opportunity to identify or secure potential grant funding for this project. Should the City Council provide final approval for this proposed project and should sufficient private funding be secured to build the project, staff will then be able to explore potential grant opportunities to help fund the City's commitment to the project. That said, in the event grants are insufficient or unavailable, the most likely other source of City funding would be Facility Improvement reserves, General Capital Projects reserves, or General Fund reserves, depending on the availability of unencumbered funding in those reserves at the time the project is ready for construction, and subject to Council approval.

Requirement #2: Working with the Friends of the La Habra Children’s Museum to develop an architectural design for the new proposed building that aesthetically complements the existing Children’s Museum buildings, subject to Planning Commission, Community Services Commission and City Council approval.

Due to site and construction cost constraints, Mr. Roberts has proposed to significantly reduce the size of the proposed building from 5,000 square feet to approximately 3,000 square feet. Furthermore, the new building is now proposed to be a pre-fabricated steel building rather than custom wood framed construction. Due to the type of building being proposed, staff is requiring significant façade improvements to ensure that the exterior of the building is complementary to the architectural style and feel of the existing Children’s Museum building. The new design includes restrooms in the building, making it more suitable for special events and rentals. It should be noted that, while pre-fabricated steel buildings are commonly constructed throughout the country for a variety of uses, the City has limited experience with this type of construction compared to traditional wood frame building methods.

If City Council approves this project to move forward, staff will present formal site and building plans, once completed, to the City’s Planning and Community Services Commissions for review and input prior to final plans being presented to the City Council for final review and approval. 

Requirement #3: Securing a suitable development site at Portola Park for the new proposed building that will not significantly impede the use of Portola Park for other park uses. 

After evaluating several potential locations for the proposed immersion theater around the Children’s Museum building, staff and the Friends are in agreement that the most effective location for the new proposed building is on the south side of the Children’s Museum, immediately behind the Depot Theater building (see attached). This location provides convenient parking lot access and does not impact Portola Park. Another major positive aspect of this site location is that the new building can be designed as a partially connected annex to the existing Children’s Museum building, offering easier access for attendees to transit back and forth between the two buildings.

Two notable issues related to this location; however, are that the new building may not be very noticeable from Euclid Street, potentially impacting its visibility to potential patrons, and the building location will require the City to remove and dispose of at least two to three existing railroad train cars currently at that location.
 

SUMMARY
Mr. Roberts and the Friends are of the opinion that the Immersion Theater proposal is ready to move to the next phase of development, which will require a formal site plan and architectural designs to be created. Mr. Roberts has proposed that the City fund half the cost of the design costs and building plans, and staff recommends capping that City funding commitment to no more than $50,000. Staff also concurs that the project is at an inflection point and requires further direction from Council in order to proceed or not.
 
Therefore, staff is requesting that the City Council receive and file this status update for the proposed Immersion Theater expansion project at the Children’s Museum and provide direction to staff regarding:

 

A.  Approval of the final site location for the proposed Immersion Theater building;

B. Approval of a funding appropriation in an amount equal to half the cost, not to exceed $50,000 (whichever is lower), from available City Facility Improvement reserves, for site plans, architectural designs and building plans for the proposed new building; and,

C.  A City funding commitment for this project, in an amount not to exceed $400,000, that will be used to help construct the new proposed building, subject to City Council review of the final building plan and design at a future date, and subject to full private project funding for the project being secured prior to the City’s contribution being utilized.