Party Over for Rowdy Frats? : Fullerton Council May Be Ready to Close Door on 2 CSUF Houses

The end may be near for two fraternity houses on Cal State Fullerton’s Fraternity Row, after years of battles among the city, the Greeks and their neighbors.

The Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Pi fraternities are taking a last-ditch appeal to the City Council to remain in the houses where late-night parties have aroused numerous complaints in the surrounding residential neighborhood.

Last summer, the two fraternities lost their court challenge of Fullerton’s ordinance requiring all fraternities and sororities to obtain city conditional-use permits. Then, on Jan. 10, the Planning Commission refused to grant the permits after receiving complaints of persistent noise.

On Monday, the two fraternities filed appeals of that action. A public hearing was set for Feb. 20, when the City Council is expected to resolve the issue, once and for all.

“This is it,” Ted Commerdinger, associate city planner, said Tuesday. “The City Council is their last appeal process.”

If the fraternities lose--and Mayor A.B. (Buck) Catlin predicts they will--they will be ordered to vacate their leased houses immediately, Commerdinger said.

About 18 of Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s 70 members live in their frat house at 2101 Teri Place, and about 30 Sigma Pi members live in their house across the street, known as Fraternity Row because of its concentration of seven fraternity and six sorority houses.

Mike Dunnuck, chapter president of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, said Tuesday that he hoped his fraternity could convince the council it no longer poses a “public nuisance,” as proclaimed by an Orange County Superior Court judge.

In fact, Dunnuck said, fraternity members have participated in a number of community service projects in recent months. And, he said, the parties that drew so many complaints in recent years have ended.

“Nobody has any parties any more,” said Dunnuck, 20, a junior. “All the parties are off the Row.”

Sigma Pi members were not available for comment because they all went on a ski vacation this week during holiday break at Cal State Fullerton, a pledge at the house said. But in their appeal, Sigma Pi leaders disputed the Planning Commission’s contention that they are unruly. Fullerton police, however, said Sigma Alpha and Sigma Pi houses have remained constant sources of trouble, while other fraternities and sororities in the area have quieted considerably.

“It’s not as bad as before, but it’s still bad,” Capt. Ron Kaczor said. “We’re out there every weekend on some kind of call, mostly relating to noise.”

Brawling in Street

Neighbors said they have seen no decrease in rowdyism.

“It’s really bad, and it’s been that way practically every day since we have lived here,” said Florence Dagneau, who has lived with her husband, William, in a townhouse near the Sigma Alpha and Sigma Pi houses for 10 years. “They blast their stereos at all times of the night. And we never know what they’re going to do. We are awakened at all times of the night.”

Last month, police were called to break up a brawl in front of the two Greek houses that officers at the scene said involved 100 and 150 people from both fraternities. According to police reports, the fight started when a Sigma Alpha member doused a female guest at the Sigma Pi house with a cup of beer and was thrown out. Soon, officers said, young men from both fraternities confronted one another in the middle of the street.

“Yelling and screaming then led to pushing and shoving, and the argument got out of hand into a brawl,” Officer W. Wallis said in a report.

Dunnuck said reports of the fight were exaggerated. He said no more than eight fraternity members actually participated, and that the others were only trying to break it up. Dunnuck said both fraternities later disciplined the brawling members by placing them on probation for the spring semester. Another serious infraction, Dunnuck said, and those members will be kicked out of the fraternity.

Capt. Kaczor said that the other 11 Greek houses--all of which have received conditional-use permits--have not posed the same problem. A 12th house, Tau Kappa Epsilon, closed last semester after a Labor Day melee in which police were pelted with eggs when they tried to break up a party involving hundreds of students. The national Tau Kappa Epsilon revoked the chapter’s charter.

Tau Kappa had joined with Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Sigma Pi in a lawsuit challenging the ordinance passed by the City Council in November, 1985. That ordinance requires sororities and fraternities to have conditional-use permits, which allows the city to impose certain rules, such as how many people could gather at one house or where members could park. The permits are reviewed whenever city officials deem appropriate.

The deadline set for obtaining the permits was Jan. 1, 1988. All the Greek houses complied except for Tau Kappa, Sigma Alpha and Sigma Pi, which fought the requirement on grounds the conditions violated their constitutional rights.

In August, Superior Court Judge Betty Lou Lamoreaux upheld the city’s ordinance. Calling the three fraternities “a public nuisance,” Lamoreaux ordered them to seek a permit within 60 days or close.

Council Has Had It

At the Jan. 10 Planning Commission meeting, the fraternities submitted documentation showing they have been trying to improve.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon, for instance, presented letters from such organizations as the Women’s Transitional Center of Orange and the Boys Club of Fullerton thanking the fraternity for assisting in recent activities. The fraternities said they also put on drug- and alcohol-awareness seminars at Cal State Fullerton, and enacted tougher rules, such as imposing evening quiet hours.

Dunnuck also pointed out to city officials that the Fullerton chapter has been nominated by the national fraternity for the Most Improved Chapter Award. The award winner is to be announced this summer.

But City Manager William C. Winter wrote in a recent letter that the Dec. 15 brawl and other incidents that required police were evidence that the fraternities are unable to be good neighbors.

If the fraternities lose their appeal Feb. 20, the rented houses would revert back to four-plexes, as they were originally designed in the 1960s, Commerdinger said. The fraternities would continue to be recognized by the university and could reapply for permits in six months, he said.

But for now, Mayor Catlin said, he and the other council members are tired of hearing about fraternity problems.

“The citizens deserve relief,” Catlin said. “We have to take the action necessary to preserve the neighborhood. I don’t want to sound like I’m anti-fraternity, but I am anti that kind of rowdy behavior.”