George Lucas abandons plans for new Calif. studio

(CBS News) "Star Wars" creator George Lucas says he's giving up plans for a new movie studio in Marin County, north of San Francisco.

He says there were too many obstacles, too many hearings, and too much of a fight to get it done.

Some of Lucas' neighbors are angry with the people who stood in his way.

The conflict was about this living postcard of California, where Lucas had planned a state-of-the-art digital movie studio. But a handful of neighbors said, too close for comfort.

The studio, according to homeowner Liz Dale, would have brought traffic, noise and damage to a delicate environment. "They ramped up the plan to add sound stages, outdoor stages for filming, restaurant and retail," Dale said.

But Tom Forester, who speaks for Lucas, said Lucas had "no proposal for retail."

"We don't think that anyone wins in this situation. Everybody loses," Forester said. "(It would have been) a good business that would have provided hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue."

Lucas is a local boy, a local hero, whose first box office hit, "American Graffiti," was filmed on local streets.

And a lot of locals are unhappy he couldn't build this mission-style compound that would have brought as many as 340 jobs and buckets of tax money to town.

Lucas is also known as the developer you want, even if you don't want development. He has preserved thousands of acres.

County Supervisor Susan Adams points out the thousands of acres he's preserved.

But the parcel that was under contention he says he will sell, maybe to developers who would build low-income housing, an idea which already isn't going down too well with his opponents.

Carolyn Lenert, a homeowner and opponent of Lucas' plan, when asked about low-income housing, said, "It could work but part of the criteria is to have it closer to jobs and closer to mass transit. ... It's not ideal."

Lucas is going to leave that discussion to whoever else tries to build on the land.

To watch Brian Rooney's full report, watch the video in the player above.