Country Club Cancels Event Over Zone Rule : Anti-Nuclear Group Says It Lost Money

When the executive board of Voters to End the Arms Race invited 5,000 supporters to a dinner at the Beverly Hills Country Club, they made no bones about the nature of the event.

There would be a reception and dinner and a speech by Dr. Helen Caldicott, the Australian-born pediatrician and critic of nuclear power and nuclear weapons.

But when the invitation came in the mail, Virginia Kruger found herself “on the horns of a moral dilemma.”

It was not that she disapproved of the organization, a political action committee that raises money to help political candidates who support a bilateral, verifiable freeze on the construction and deployment of nuclear weapons. She and her husband have contributed to similar causes in the past.

Problems With Site

But she had a problem with the site. Kruger, planning deputy to Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, knew that holding such an event there would violate provisions of the club’s conditional-use permit. The permit requires that social events held there be sponsored by club members, not outside organizations.

“It was really troublesome to me. I can’t ignore what my job in this office is,” said Kruger, who was in on the negotiations that allowed the 60-year-old Westside Racquet Club to reopen as the Beverly Hills Country Club two years ago. Despite its name, the club is actually located in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Cheviot Hills.

Although guest speakers can be invited, the club’s conditional-use permit rules out functions larger than parties that members throw for their friends.

The line seems fuzzy--the Congressional Human Rights Foundation held a fund-raising event there in February, and tennis player Martina Navratilova, a member of the club, will play host to a party to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation this summer. But big fund-raisers are out--especially events with mailing lists big enough to reach people who might complain about them to City Hall.

“It’s OK for members to have small meetings if they are essentially private affairs,” said a zoning official, who asked that his name not be used. “What was unusual about this particular request was that someone did what appeared to be a general mailing. It went out to people on a mailing list, and that’s not approved under the scope of the conditional-use permit.”

List Too Large

Unfortunately for Voters to End the Arms Race, the mailing list included Kruger, who turned the invitation over to city zoning officials. They, in turn, called club management to warn that the event would violate the club’s zoning.

The dinner was promptly canceled, making leaders of Voters to End the Nuclear Freeze suspicious. Could some political conservatives have infiltrated the country club and barred their group for reasons of their own?

“We assumed it was because of our name,” said Mariette Vandermolen, director of the nuclear freeze group, which was founded in 1983. “There’s a lot going on there, and I don’t know what the issue was, but it certainly is an insult.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time in the history of the world that a move like this has been politically motivated,” said Lila Garrett, a member of the executive board of Voters to End the Arms Race.

She said the group eventually held its soiree at a La Cienega Boulevard restaurant, where the seating capacity was less than that of the Country Club banquet room. About 150 people showed up, 40 less than were expected in Cheviot Hills.

“We were damaged by this. We lost people. . . . We lost money. We were damaged, and we’ll see what happens,” Garrett said, adding that a board member who is a lawyer is looking into the matter.

Denies Politics Involved

“It had nothing to do with politics,” said Bill Johnson, banquet manager for the country club. “When they sent out their literature, we were led to believe that a club member (who is also a member of the board of Voters to End the Arms Race) was holding the party. We didn’t realize that it was for this organization. We hate to cancel any event, but we have neighbors to think about.”

Johnson said the club holds events for individual members almost every day, from weddings with hundreds of guests to intimate breakfast meetings. There are also club functions, such as a New Year’s Eve dinner-dance and a Governors’ Gala, and an occasional fund-raising event, “but always in conjunction with a member hosting them,” Johnson said.

“We’re here to make a buck,” he said. “It hurts us as much as anybody else to turn down a party like this. “

The Country Club, which boasts 10 tennis courts but has no golf course, has about 800 members. Tennis memberships, for which there is a waiting list, require an initiation fee of $5,700 and monthly payments of $140. Social memberships, which are limited to two tennis court uses a month, cost $3,700 to join and $92 a month.

Built in 1928 for employees of a nearby movie studio, the club’s members have included Johnny Weismuller, Humphrey Bogart and Errol Flynn.

It was renovated in 1986 for about $10 million by its new owner, the Hawaii-based Knight Development Co.