Maple Grove Movie Theater Begins Work to Remove “Public Nuisance” Label
In August, the Maple Grove City Council declared the AMC Arbor Lakes 16 movie theater a “public nuisance” due to a number of property maintenance violations. Those included overgrown weeds, excessive trash in the parking lot and potholes.
The city tried reaching out to management, but all calls and letters went unreturned.
As a last resort, the Maple Grove City Council declared the property a public nuisance. Shortly after the city made that declaration, AMC theater management said they would commit to making the necessary improvements.
“We’re actively working with the theater. We’re very hopeful,” said Joe Hogeboom, Maple Grove’s community development director. “We think that they’re now engaged in the process of partnering with us to make things up to code. And so we’re very happy with the progress that we’ve seen.”
AMC Improvements After “Public Nuisance” Declaration
In the past two weeks, the AMC Arbor Lakes 16 theater has patched many of the significant potholes and cracks that were scattered throughout the parking lot. The theater’s cleaning service picks up litter in the parking lot and around the building every morning. And it has hired a company to improve landscaping.
Had the theater not taken steps to fix these issues, the city would have stepped in to do the work and assess the cost to the property owner.
“Really this is sort of the epicenter of Maple Grove,” Hogeboom said about the Maple Grove movie theater. “It’s really our downtown core. And to have such a large, visible community attraction not take a vested interest that we’d like to see, it really could have a negative effect on the area. Luckily, I think with some of the improvements that have been made and continue to be made, we’re not seeing that and we won’t see that.”
Meanwhile, the city hasn’t removed the public nuisance declaration just yet. Hogeboom says the theater has to show that it can maintain the property up to the city’s standards over these next few months before making that decision.
