Council concerns about fire safety, parking create uncertainty for Crown Uptown expansion

The future of the Crown Uptown Theatre is up in the air after the Wichita City Council sent the owner’s request to increase its capacity back to the planning commission.

The council cited parking and fire safety as the biggest concerns about the 96-year-old theater expanding to a 2,066-person capacity. Its current capacity is 850 people.

The Eagle has reached out to the theater’s owner, Mike Brown, for comment.

Brown, who wants to turn the former movie and dinner theater into a concert venue, has said he needs The Crown to be able to function at a full capacity of 2,066 to turn a profit.

He recently said if the council did not allow that, he would tear down the theater. The planning commission recommended approval of the capacity expansion earlier this year, but the District 1 Advisory Board denied it, citing concerns from neighbors and setting up the council’s decision.

One of the biggest issues is fire safety, according to an official with the Metropolitan Area Building and Construction Department.

The current fire safety system allows for only its current capacity of 850. Adding a fire suppression system would allow for just over 1,500 people.

“People’s lives would be at risk, the city’s liability could be at risk,” council member Becky Tuttle said. “So that’s something that I would also like to see addressed.”

Neighbors voiced concerns about parking and said the neighborhood would not be able to support the amount of people coming for events.

“Specifically, I’d like to know, are there options that can result in a better balance between the use of the property for large events and impacts to the neighborhood,” council member Brandon Johnson, who represents the area, said.

Johnson also said he’d like to see how the theater and its parking issues can be fixed when the College Hill Neighborhood Plan is complete. The plan will develop guidelines for future development and be presented to the council soon.

For now, the Crown’s case will be returned to the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission to see if the city and theater owner can work together on a solution.

This story was originally published December 3, 2024 at 6:22 PM.