Rock Haven Loses Permits, Faces Eviction

Reacting to complaints that concert-goers are lewd and concertmasters are rude, a Los Angeles city zoning officer moved to lower the curtain Friday on the San Fernando Valley’s premier rock music stage.

The 10-year-old Country Club in Reseda was ordered stripped of the permits needed for its mix of concerts, boxing matches and other events that have brought it national television fame.

The city’s move shocked club operators, who had applied for a 10-year extension of those permits and permission from zoning officials to increase club capacity by 50%.

But it delighted homeowners and shopkeepers who complained that the 982-seat club has wrecked both a nearby neighborhood and Reseda’s downtown business district.

Converted Drugstore

Residents charged that nighttime concert-goers spill out of a 425-space parking lot and onto their neighborhood streets behind the converted Sav-On drugstore that houses the Country Club.

Merchants complained that television crews using the club by day to produce rock videos squeeze shoppers out of the parking lot and have forced some small businesses to close.

“The things that go on outside my house and in that parking lot at night are unbelievable,” said Daniel Robertson, who said he arms himself with a baseball bat when he goes outside to take snapshots of people urinating near his house.

“They kill their last beer, toss the bottle on my lawn, take a leak, jump over the fence and go to the concert,” Robertson said. “I want it to stop. Something has to be done.”

Sex in Front Yard

Neighbor Judy Zervas said she finds used condoms on her front lawn.

“How do I explain to my 2-year-old daughter why people are having sex on our front yard?” she asked James Crisp, associate zoning administrator, during a hearing Friday attended by about 40 people.

Reseda merchants said three Sherman Way storefronts near the Country Club have been forced to close because of the daytime parking problem.

They complained that club operators allow television production vans to take up parking spaces behind their shops that are normally used by customers. In the front, the club allows production equipment and catering supplies to clog sidewalks, they said.

Shopkeeper Nick Jabbour told Crisp that his store’s plate-glass window was smashed by a club security guard who was playing football in the lot at 3 a.m.

The charges were disputed by Country Club manager Scott Hurowitz, who said the club has beefed up parking-lot security over the past year in response to an earlier city order.

“We should exist because we are good neighbors,” Hurowitz pleaded.

In refusing to renew permits for dancing and on-site alcoholic beverage consumption, Crisp noted the city’s previous attempts at resolving neighbors’ complaints.

“In March of 1978 this started. With problem after problem, there’s no response . . .,” he said. “I have to ask myself: ‘How would I feel living next to this?’ ”

Country Club officials vowed to appeal Crisp’s ruling to the city Board of Zoning Appeals. A city Planning Department spokesman said late Friday that requests for permit extensions cannot be appealed beyond the board to the City Council.

Elaine Landis, whose late husband, promoter Chuck Landis, created the Country Club, said club operators have no alternative site in mind if they are unsuccessful in overturning Crisp’s ruling.

Country Club supporters were shocked by Friday’s ruling.

“It’s going to be a tremendous loss for the Valley,” said Alan Roberts, treasurer of the Reseda Chamber of Commerce. “It’s served a valuable purpose to everybody, rock music, country music, boxing matches. The Country Club has done more to further the name of Reseda nationwide and worldwide than anything.”

It has been a rock-music showcase for unknown bands as well as stars, according to club operators. Some Country Club performances are being shown as rock videos on MTV, they said.

Those performing at the club have included Mick Jagger, Prince, U-2, Linda Ronstadt, Bon Jovi, Tom Petty, Tina Turner, Jackson Browne, Fleetwood Mac, REO Speedwagon, Elvis Costello, the Eurythmics, Loverboy and Earth, Wind and Fire, Hurowitz said. He said pop, country and jazz performances have been staged there by Della Reese, Herbie Hancock, Waylon Jennings and Chuck Mangione.

Members of a Van Nuys-based rock band who were setting up lights and sound equipment for Friday evening’s concert said many musicians feel the Country Club is the top concert house in Los Angeles.

“We’ve played in the Hollywood clubs, at Irvine Meadows, at the Santa Monica Civic, and this is the best,” said Steven Sweet, a 22-year-old drummer with the band Warrant.

Said guitarist Erik Turner, 23: “A lot of bands are going to be hurt. A lot of people are going to be upset. This is the cleanest, nicest, most professional place in L.A. Their security here is the best.”

Boxing promoter Dan Goossen, who has staged monthly prizefights at the Country Club for five years, said late Friday that club operators have worked hard in recent years to upgrade the building.

“I’m proud to promote there,” said Goossen, who has had four Country Club bouts nationally televised on CBS and ESPN. “I’ll fight to the finish to keep from losing my boxing home. And my business is fighting.”