Colorado has nine drive-in movie theaters.

It soon could have eight.

The Sheridan Planning Commission tonight will consider a developer's request to rezone the 34-year-old Cinderella Twin Drive-In to pave the way for a condo project.

"This has been in the process for about five years," Sheridan Planning Commission Chairman Don Smith said. "They've mostly got all of their I's dotted and T's crossed. It's in basically the final phase of the planning commission."

If the commission approves the zoning request, it will head to the City Council. If the council follows suit, the company will break ground in November or December, Smith said.

Opened in 1973, the Cinderella Twin Drive-In missed the heyday of drive-in movie theaters. Automotive cinema hit its peak in 1958, and has been in sharp decline ever since.

According to the United Drive-In Theatre Owners Association, there were 4,063 such places across the country that year.

Today, there are 398. In the metro area, the only other drive-in is the 88 Drive-In Theatre at 88th Avenue and Rosemary Street in Commerce City.

Such cinemas are on the endangered species list because drive-ins are often located on land that has become ripe for redevelopment.

Theaters, once built away from main areas of the city, are now in the middle of bustling areas, with the value of their land exponentially higher than when they started.

Selling the land is often far more profitable than continuing to run the theater, according to literature released by the UDITOA online.

For landowners not hooked on the nostalgia of the drive-in, it makes business sense.

Such is the case with the Cinderella Twin Drive-In, Smith said.

At Platte River Drive and Hampden Avenue, the Cinderella is across the street from a new light-rail station. On the other side of Hampden, a new shopping center is going up.

coonsj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5617