Riverside City Councilman Mike Gardner said it made sense for Riverside to buy three parcels from a downtown landowner for $4.7 million -- $1 million more than the city's original appraisal -- so the city could build a parking structure next to the Fox Theatre.

Gardner, who represents the downtown area and was backed by the landowner, Dr. V. Prabhu Dhalla, in his election campaign, said city officials had been advised that parking adjacent to the Fox would play an important role in the success of what will be known as the Fox Performing Arts Center when it opens next year.

The land, combined with two other parcels purchased last fall for $2 million, will be used for a 300- to 400-space parking structure that will sit next door to the 1,600-seat center.

Last October, Gardner said that downtown, "there is more parking than there is demand. But not where people want it."

Dom Betro, who was ousted from his Ward 1 council seat by Gardner in 2007, said the city's purchase was a mistake.

He said that when the city acquired the Fox Theatre in 2005, it was his thought to strike a deal with the owners of a private parking structure directly across Mission Inn Avenue for theater patron parking.

"It would be cost-effective and an environmentally friendly use," Betro said this week. "You need people downtown. You don't need more cars."

He said the notion that people are unwilling to walk more than a block or two to get to their destination is "an old archaic way of thinking."

"It's a suburban view of how you create parking options downtown," he said.

Gardner said the problem with the parking lot across the street is that the city would not have controlled availability for Fox patrons.

Janice Penner, executive director of the Riverside Downtown Partnership, disagreed with Betro's contention that there is ample downtown parking.

Penner also said that the most successful performing arts venues have adjacent parking. "People want convenience," she said. "They want to pull up to the door and walk right in."

The city is spending up to $30 million to renovate the Fox.

Wildomar's first shopping center

Barons-The Marketplace, a specialty grocer, will anchor the 85,000-square-foot Renaissance Plaza, west of Interstate 15 on Clinton Keith Road.

The Renaissance Plaza, which is nearing completion, will represent the first large development completed since the city's 2008 incorporation, the first specialty grocer and the city's first full-service car wash.

An adjacent shopping center, The Shops at Clinton Keith, was completed shortly after voters approved cityhood in February 2008. "We're kind of the guinea pig, in a good way," said David Moscato, a representative with the developer, San Diego-based A&S Development Group LLC. "We've been hearing nothing but positives from people in the community and city officials; they're excited about having that kind of market in their community."

In addition to the Barons, other confirmed tenants include Yellow Basket and Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants, a proposed charter school, and the car wash.

Moscato said he expects the school to be the first tenant to open sometime in the fall, with other tenants, which are at various stages of plan-checking with the city, opening later in the fall and winter.

Plans for the project began in 2007, with construction commencing in June 2008.

Sprawl impacts longtime businesses

A Wal-Mart Supercenter, a shopping center and a warehouse complex planned near the junction of Scott Road and Interstate 215 will soon change the landscape of dirt roads and empty fields in Menifee that dozens of small businesses call home.

Developers will also be paving and improving area roads and installing underground utilities. City officials say the upgrades are sure to boost the value of the surrounding Menifee properties, currently a patchwork of vacant lots and businesses such as auto repair shops, equipment storage yards, towing companies and landscaping outfits.

However, the arrival of new development also appears to be costing some longtime business owners. After years of sitting undisturbed in their country nook, 27 businesses were cited last summer by Riverside County code enforcement officers for violations including lack of business licenses and noncompliance with building codes and land-use zoning.

Eventually the city will ask the businesses to come up to code, but seeing how none of the three developers are breaking ground just yet, the city is giving the businesses time, said Planning Director Carmen Cave.

The cost of obtaining a conditional-use permit in Menifee requires a deposit of about $9,000. The goal, Cave said, is to ensure that the businesses complement the land uses of incoming development, which are a mix of retail, restaurant, office and warehouse.

"It doesn't make a lot of sense to have low-profit uses on high-value land," Cave said.