County Panel Urges Shutdown of N. Hollywood Bondage Parlor

The Los Angeles County Commission on Obscenity and Pornography is urging the county to search for some legal method to close down the Club Chateau, a sadomasochism parlor that moved from Hollywood to a former bakery in North Hollywood in March.

In a letter to the Board of Supervisors, scheduled for review at Tuesday’s board meeting, the commission asks that a county committee be formed to investigate the bondage-and-discipline club and the action by Los Angeles city authorities in August granting it a zoning permit, the first of its kind.

“This is a first and we’re going to see what we can do to stop it,” commission President Dolores I. Nason said. “Otherwise, it’ll just mushroom. This kind of thing seems to be very popular.”

County supervisors have no jurisdiction over city zoning decisions, and a preliminary review of the city’s action turned up no legal problems with the permit, county attorneys said.

“We researched it and as far as the zoning goes, they are in full compliance,” Deputy County Counsel Rosanne Wong said. “Unless they have actual evidence that something illegal is going on, they cannot just pull their permit.”

However, Wong said that if they wish, county supervisors could recommend that the city take a closer look at the permit process or they could push for changes in city, county or even state ordinances and laws to prohibit such establishments.

The 26-year-old commission, an advisory body with no power of its own, has 15 members, all appointed by the supervisors. It has frequently taken on issues outside the county government’s jurisdiction, including successfully lobbying for state legislation that made possession of child pornography a crime and for the closure of an X-rated movie theater in Long Beach located near homes and a school.

A spokesman for Supervisor Ed Edelman, who represents North Hollywood, said he had not yet taken a position on the commission’s recommendation. However, Lori Howard, Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s justice deputy, said Antonovich would support the investigation.

“We want to find out any action at all that can take place to stop this business and, if not this business, then others like it,” Howard said.

Club Chateau owner James Hillier said he was not surprised by the commission’s recommendation, which he described as a political maneuver.

“They have to find somebody to attack,” he said. “This is an election year and that’s all this is. . . . They have to drum up some issues and create some controversy.”

The club--where an estimated 4,000 members pay $100 for half an hour to live out their fantasies of beating or being beaten by young women--is located in the former Barbara Ann Bakery in a mostly industrial area north of Sherman Way.

Hillier moved his business to the San Fernando Valley in March after city officials determined that its former Hollywood site was located within 500 feet of a residence, in violation of the city’s adult entertainment ordinance. Similar pressures caused the club in 1985 to move from a West Hollywood location, where neighbors complained of hearing screams and moans from clients being whipped.

A trailer park is located near the current location, which pornography commissioners said could be grounds for again declaring the club to be positioned too close to residences. However, during zoning hearings earlier this year, the city determined that the trailer park is not zoned as a residential area.

The decision to grant a permit for the club, made by a city zoning official, was never appealed to the City Council by opponents, to the surprise of many of those involved.

A representative of a religious publishing company called Living Word--the club’s closest neighbor and a leading opponent of the zoning permit--said his firm had hoped the public would initiate an appeal.

“We received legal advice that it wouldn’t serve any purpose to get involved in an appeal . . . because we were told it wasn’t going to be overturned,” said Steve Seboldt, general manager of Living Word.

Seboldt said the club has been “pretty quiet,” in apparent compliance with the 19 strict conditions attached to the zoning permit--including a requirement that screams not be audible outside the building. He said the only major problem is “we still have their clients accidentally coming to our door.”