Panel Overturns Ruling Against Amphitheater

The J. Paul Getty Trust, long rebuffed in its efforts to add an amphitheater to its now-closed Pacific Palisades villa, won a key battle in state appellate court against traffic-wary residential neighbors Monday.

A three-judge panel overturned the 2000 decision by Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs, who held that the Los Angeles City Council had improperly approved the Getty’s plans for a 450-seat theater by overriding zoning restrictions and the protests of neighbors. Now “we will proceed full speed ahead,” said Peter Erichsen, vice president and general counsel to the J. Paul Getty Trust.