LEBANON — Plans to provide the Lebanon Theatre Company with a home of its own in Bicentennial Park may be scuttled if the Lebanon Planning Commission gets its way.

        “It's a disappointment, obviously, because we were hoping to have a downtown presence in a semi-permanent way,” theater President Wayne Dunn said.

IF YOU GO

• What: Lebanon Planning Commission.     • When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.     • Where: City Building, 50 S. Broadway.

        The planning commission is expected to vote Tuesday on a recommendation for the park that commission members have hashed out over two work sessions. Suggested changes include removing the old house at 5-7 Cherry St., buying and tearing down the building occupied by Goodwill, and selling eight lots to private developers.

        A City Council committee asked for the planning commission's recommendations on the park because council is concerned that renovating 5-7 Cherry, as planned by the previous council, would be too expensive. The private Lebanon Conservancy Foundation wants the building saved. The city engineer puts the cost at $200,000.

        The park, which encompasses the downtown block bounded by Main, Mulberry, Cherry and Mechanic streets, has been in the works for several years and remains unfinished in this, Lebanon's bicentennial year.

        The previous council intended to use the Goodwill building as a theater, but the planning commission is talking about tearing it down and moving the gazebo there. The building, which has a concrete-block facade, is only half a century old — a newcomer compared to many others downtown.

        The theater group sees possibilities, however.

        “It seems like if you took it back to the '50s and dressed it up with a new marquee, it could show another era of Lebanon,” Mr. Dunn said.

        Lebanon Theatre now holds its performances on the top floor of the Shoe Factory, an antiques mall on South Street. A dedicated theater building would allow the group to install better and more permanent lighting and seating, Mr. Dunn said.

        The proposed development area is on Cherry Street and would replace the 5-7 building and a planned bandstand site. The “infill” development could be shops or offices, Deputy Planning Director Doug Johnson said.

        But downtown shopkeeper Gerald Miller is concerned that infill will leave little green space in the park.

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