By a unanimous vote, the La Grange Village Board Monday approved an ordinance allowing Classic Cinemas La Grange Theatre to add three more auditoriums.

The ordinance approved a special use permit, a site plan, and design review permit, for the planned expansion of the business at 80 S. La Grange Rd.

“I’m excited,” Chris Johnson, owner of Tivoli Enterprises, the operator of the theater, said. “My goal for the theater was to do 180,000 people for the year, and before this meeting, I like to be a little prepared, so I looked at between Sept. 25, 2022 and Sept. 24, 2023, we did a 180,800 people.”

Classic Cinemas is a Downers Grove-based company that operates 16 movie houses, most in the Chicago area, but some as far away as Beloit, Wisconsin, and Freeport, Illinois.

Trustee Lou Gale walked the Board through the particulars of the ordinance, which can be found on the Village website, villageoflagrange.com under the meeting agenda for 9-25-23.

The planned expansion will involve razing portions of 70-76 S. La Grange Road, currently occupied by the Hot Dog and Burger Company and Prime Cuts. The planned addition to the Theatre building will include three new auditoriums, two with 73 seats each, and one with 39 seats.

The theater currently houses six theaters with a total of 318 seats.

On July 11, the Plan Commission voted unanimously to recommend approval of the special use permit, design review permit, and site plan, albeit with several conditions. Among them are:

-the applicant (Classic Cinemas La Grange Theatre) must share with the Village an example of the final facade materials, colors, and textures. The sample provided will be subject to approval by the Village.

-the applicant must record a shared parking agreement with neighbors at 60. S. La Grange Road (Hortons Ace Hardware and Home Lighting), memorializing the shared parking agreements between the theater and Hortons.

Although members of the public raised questions at that meeting about traffic impact, refuse collection, and signage, none objected to the plan.

Commission members did express some concerns about the loss of 11 parking spaces from the lot between the Theatre and Hortons and the effect it would have a downtown parking.

Contacted later, Johnson was upbeat.

“I’m very happy that it was approved,” he said. “I think it’s a really good for the theater and good for the community.”

Johnson said that he was shooting for an opening in the Summer 2024.

“Now that we’ve been approved, we can go out to bid and find out what those lead times are,” he said referring to the time it would take to procure materials such as precast walls and steel.

But he noted that the lead times had already been long going into the project.

“If everything worked out perfectly, which is a rarity, I’d like to be open next Summer,” he said. “That’s the goal, but I don’t know if that’s realistic yet … the first time around we were hoping to open Memorial Day 2022. We did everything possible and we did open Memorial Day 2022. My hope is that we repeat that two years later.”

Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.