A group calling itself the Friends of the Whiteside Theatre has filed an 11th-hour appeal in a bid to keep the historic downtown movie house from being redeveloped as a restaurant and retail complex.

Whiteside Partners LLC, a group of Portland developers, has a contract to buy the vacant downtown cinema from Regal Entertainment. On Feb. 5 the City Council granted the group's request for a permit to remodel the building, overturning an earlier decision by the Corvallis Historic Resources Commission.

On Tuesday - the last day to challenge the council ruling with the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals - the Friends of the Whiteside sent LUBA a notice of intent by registered mail, according to a news release.

The statement noted that other Oregon communities have restored their historic theaters and urged Corvallis to do the same.

"We feel that a responsibly rehabilitated Whiteside, as an entertainment venue, would respect the venerable theater, add to the vitality that we value downtown, diversify downtown's economic base, and promote community-building throughout Corvallis."

What the news release does not say is who would buy the property and pay to restore it. Neither Susan Morre, identified as a spokeswoman for the group, nor Wendy Kincade, listed as an additional contact, could be reached for comment Tuesday. Both women previously testified against the redevelopment proposal.

Downtown resident Carolyn Ver Linden, who testified against the Whiteside Partners proposal before the Historic Resources Commission and the City Council, told the Gazette-Times on Tuesday that she was among the people backing the appeal.

"I would like to see the decision reversed, if possible," she said. "We're not protecting our historic resources according to our own code."

Ver Linden said she could not speak for the organization as a whole and was not aware of any formal plan to purchase the Whiteside Theatre. At this stage, she said, the group is simply taking things "one step at a time."

Once the most elegant theater in town, the Whiteside had fallen into disrepair and was shut down by Regal in January 2002. Built in the Italian Renaissance style, the theater dates from 1922 and was placed on the local register of historic places in the 1980s at the request of the Whiteside family. But the building has changed hands a couple of times since then.

Several attempts have been made to buy the building in the last several years, but they all fell through until Whiteside Partners came forward with a plan to convert the historic theater into a two-story complex with shops on the ground floor and a restaurant and bar upstairs. The group's contract with Regal allows it to opt out of the deal if it can't obtain regulatory approval.

The Whiteside Partners proposal generated a heated community debate over the historic theater, with one faction arguing that the property owners had a right to redevelop the building for an economically viable use and the other insisting the historic structure was too valuable as a theater to be gutted for commercial purposes.

City code is somewhat ambiguous on that point, containing language that supports both historic preservation and adaptive reuse. City planning staff initially recommended approval of the Whiteside Partners proposal, then backed the Historic Resources Commission's decision to deny the request.

Local resident Walt Griffiths, who had made a backup offer on the property with the idea of converting it into a Christian education center and performing arts venue, had been one of the most visible opponents of the Whiteside Partners proposal and had suggested he might appeal the City Council decision. Last week, however, he announced he was pulling out of the fight.

Now it appears the state will have the final say on the long-running Whiteside saga. An employee of the state land-use board said no appeal had been received as of late Tuesday afternoon, but the law does allow filing by registered or certified mail. Such notice can take several days to arrive.

If the appeal was filed properly, it could be several months before LUBA renders a final opinion.

Bennett Hall is the business editor for the Gazette-Times. He can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.