The council instead closed the public hearing on the matter and will readdress it at its Jan. 13 business meeting. The town manager and his staff are recommending that the council approve the plans with agreed-to modifications.
The applicant for the project, Eastern Federal Theatres, was requested to continue working with town staff to resolve acknowledged problems, mainly a conflict over parking.
The lack of available spaces in the parking lot in front of the current six-screen Plaza Triple Theaters property, located on Elliott Road, has adjacent business owners fearing their customers will be choked out of the lot by moviegoers.
"No one is going to park around the corner from the theater; they're going to park in a more natural spot -- in the Whole Foods Market parking lot," said George Jones, the market's manager.
Jones was supported by fellow Village Plaza tenants, including Jim Groot, owner of Red Hot & Blue , who told the council that the math Eastern Federal is using in its plans doesn't work out.
"There's 1,798 seats in there; (with the parking they have planned,) they're going to have over a thousand empty seats in there," Groot said.
"I doubt these gentlemen would risk this much capital for that."
Groot said the likely result of the Eastern Federal proposal, which plans for 482 parking spaces, is a spill into the adjacent businesses' parking areas.
"I'm not that concerned with where my customers will park. I'm not that concerned with where my employees will park," he said. "I'm more concerned with where those moviegoers will park."