There is a renewed fight over the future of the Santee Drive-in.
Last December, ABC 10News reported about the iconic East County landmark closing its doors after 65 years. The owners said in a press release that it wasn’t “economically viable” to keep open any longer.
The owners also announced they were planning to sell the property to a Los Angeles-based real estate development company, North Palisade Partners, and they plan to build “a state-of-the-art building that will serve to attract new businesses to east county San Diego.”
However, one UC San Diego student wants to put a stop to the sale.
Gage Swaner started a petition on Change.org called “Save Santee Drive-in,” in which he proposes to turn the property into a historical landmark.
Swaner also has another vision for how the drive-in could still continue to serve it’s community in an arts and culture capacity.
“I personally want to take the lead to try and turn this into a community hub for Santee,” Swaner said. “Whether that be more things that have to do with music and art and culture to, to car meets, to training schools to film festivals, to all these different things. There’s so much potential here.”