Anaheim : Nightclub for Youth Wins City Approval

Teen-agers in Anaheim will soon have a nightclub that they can call their own, but the new “hot spot” for 16- to 20-year-olds will come with a few rules.

Club manager John Schroeder assured the City Council on Tuesday that both males and females will be subjected to a frisk search before they may enter the dance hall at 1490 S. Anaheim Blvd. Alcohol will not be sold, he said, and dress codes will discourage “outrageous hair styles.”

Before a unanimous vote of approval, some council members questioned the appropriateness of the club and cited Police Department opposition to it.

“I’m not sure that police concerns (were addressed),” Councilman Irv Pickler said.

But about a dozen Orange County residents were in the audience ready to testify otherwise.

“What are you doing to offer the youth of this community in the line of recreation?” asked Dawn Ahart, chairwoman of Community Against Substance Abuse. If Anaheim and other cities do not provide supervised places for teen-agers, they will turn to alcohol and drugs, Ahart and other residents said.

The club, yet to be named, will be open from 8:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Fifteen employees, including six security guards, will be on hand. Admission to the dance hall, which will have a disc jockey, will be at least $5, said Schroeder, who owns a similar dance hall, Nightscape, in Santa Ana.

The site of that club, at 2722 N. Main St., was recently purchased by the City of Santa Ana for expansion of the nearby Fashion Square mall.

Santa Ana’s Planning Commission denied Schroeder’s application to move the club in that city because of problems associated with it, according to a report by the Anaheim city staff.

Councilman Ben Bay noted that only 25 of the 67 complaints associated with the Santa Ana club came on Friday or Saturday nights, the only nights Nightscape is open.

At the end of the Anaheim club’s first year, council members will review whether to extend the conditional-use permit.