Life of San Marcos Teen Nightclub Extended by Council

Nightown USA, a non-alcoholic disco for young adults, got a temporary reprieve Tuesday night from the San Marcos City Council, but the 27-year-old operator of the nightclub won’t be part of its future.

Stojan (Stoney) Mitich will be barred from the club’s operations, and his father, Charles Mitich, will be given 90 days to show he can halt gang activity and bring the club into conformance with city regulations.

The tempestuous younger Mitich had angered city officials with his allegations of “harassment” by a city code enforcement officer and law enforcement officers who visited the disco during its two-year life span.

Councilman Mark Loscher moved to overrule city planning commissioners and extend the Nightown permit for 90 days, explaining that “we do not have places for young people to go in this community. We need to learn to regulate a place like this.”

The elder Mitich promised to keep his son from participating in the club activities in any way and to forfeit a $5,000 bond if that condition was not met.

The club, contains “a half-million-dollar, state-of-the-art” lighting and sound system, and “my whole life is tied up in it, my retirement is tied up in the club,” Charles Mitich said.

Councilman F.H. (Corky) Smith was unconvinced of Charles Mitich’s sincerity, asking him if he would drop his civil lawsuits against neighbors who had opposed him as a condition of approval of the permit extension. Mitich refused, asking, “Why don’t they drop their opposition to my club?”

Smith was joined in his vote against granting the permit by Councilwoman Pia Harris, who pointed out that the council had promised neighbors that the Nightown permit would be revoked “if there were a single violation against them, and there have been several.”

Stojan Mitich had planned originally to convert the shopping center site into a modern concert hall, attracting top bands and hosting audiences of 1,000. City officials cut his dreams nearly in half by decreeing that no more than about 600 people could attend events at Nightown--not a large enough house to attract top entertainers.

The 27-year-old entrepreneur had gained permission from the city to convert the teen club into an adult nightclub, but was stymied when the state Alcoholic Beverage Control refused to grant Nightown a liquor license. Mitich is appealing the ABC ruling.

Stojan Mitich, who was not at the Tuesday night council session, said earlier that he was drawing very small crowds to the Las Vegas-style club and blamed the drop-off in attendance on “harassment” by city Code Enforcement Officer Susan Hall through repeated checks of his customers and the filing of erroneous reports to the city.

Hall’s reports cited Nightown and its manager for failing to “card” its customers by requiring that all youths show identification to verify they are 18 or over; for allowing customers to leave the club and re-enter without paying, a practice which reportedly led to parking lot drinking parties; for failing to have adequate security guards and for allowing underage youngsters into the club and keeping the club open after the required 1 a.m. closing.

The younger Mitich said a required security staff of 15 was based on Nightown being a 1,000-seat concert hall with name acts, not on a no-alcohol teen club. He said part of the reason for the club’s low attendance is that, “instead of paying to promote the club, we were spending it all on security guards we didn’t need.”

He said Hall’s practice of bringing a deputy sheriff along when she made her checks on Nightown also hurt his business “because kids come here to get away from authority and don’t like a place where a cop walks in every night.”