Club Loses Its Permits for Alcohol and Dances

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday stripped the San Fernando Valley’s premier rock-music club of permits to hold dances and serve alcohol.

The Country Club in Reseda plans to remain open, one of its owners said after the council action. “We’ll just operate without a liquor license and do the best we can,” David Pick said, noting that the club’s next event will take place Thursday under the new rules.

The club is allowed under city zoning regulations to continue to operate at its present location, but it needed special permission to have dances and serve alcohol.

The council voted 10 to 0 to revoke the permits on the recommendation of Councilwoman Joy Picus, who said she received complaints from nearby residents of drug use, fighting, lewd conduct and “other unacceptable behavior” by patrons of the 982-seat club in the 18400 block of Sherman Way.

“The Country Club has proved that it doesn’t know how to be a good neighbor,” Picus, who represents the area, told colleagues.

Club representatives appealed to the council to give them another chance to eliminate the problems.

Many Chances

But Picus, referring to the relationship between the city and club owners, reiterated what she told the city’s Planning and Environment Committee, which recommended that the council not renew the club’s permits: “We’re like a parent, and they’re like a child who is always saying ‘Give me one more chance. . . .’ We have given them chance after chance after chance.”

Disturbances at the club led to permit-revocation hearings in 1983 and 1984, but city officials allowed the club to stay open. A city zoning administrator in February recommended against renewal of the club’s permits, saying club owners have been “completely and absolutely derelict in their responsibility to the community. . . .” Club officials appealed that decision to the city committee and then to the council.

The club hired lobbyists to take their case to council members. But on Tuesday, the battle ended with council members deferring to Picus, as they customarily do to colleagues on matters that affect only the colleague’s district.

During a hearing before the council Tuesday, Capt. John Higgins of the Los Angeles Police Department’s West Valley Division reported 65 “criminal incidents” at the club in the last 2 years, mostly involving fights and public drinking.

Judy Zervas, one of about two dozen neighbors at the hearing, said she has found used condoms on her front lawn. “I can truly say that I’m sorry that we ever moved to Reseda,” she said.

Pick responded that most of the problems cited by residents occurred in 1983 before the current management took over the 10-year-old club. He cited the club’s efforts to eliminate problems, including hiring a security guard to patrol the neighborhood.

“It’s much better, in my opinion, to have a place that is supervised where young adults can go and spend an evening enjoying themselves than to turn them loose in the community,” he told the council.

Pick said the club will try to attract a younger clientele that does not consume alcohol. He warned that “there may be even more problems than there were before” because of the younger patrons.

City zoning officials said that if problems continue, the city can move to shut down the club under nuisance-abatement laws.

Club manager Scott Hurowitz said that without the revenue from alcohol sales, it will be difficult for the club to book the kind of big-name performers that have given it a national reputation.

The club has achieved renown for its rock concerts, boxing matches and other events.