Nude Dance Club Operator Vows: ‘We Are Here to Stay’

The Extasy, a Northridge club featuring nude dancers, will remain open through the weekend, despite action against it by the Los Angeles City Council and building inspectors.

“We’re open and we’re planning to stay open,” said Steve Gamer, a spokesman for the club on Corbin Avenue near Nordhoff Street. “We’re going to adhere to the law. We plan to fight any attempt to close us down.”

Department of Building and Safety inspectors cited the owners of the club a few hours after it opened Thursday night, saying the owners were violating zoning laws. On Friday, the City Council voted 14 to 0 to ask City Atty. James K. Hahn to seek a court order closing the club until the zoning dispute is resolved.

The issue is scheduled to be heard in Van Nuys Municipal Court on Feb. 19.

A temporary restraining order could not be sought before Tuesday, so the club will remain open through the weekend, said Ali Sar, an aide to Councilman Hal Bernson, who represents the area and is backing neighborhood opponents of the club.

“We fully expect the city attorney to ask for the injunction on Tuesday,” Sar said.

But Deputy City Atty. L. Wayne Mooney declined to discuss details of the case and would not say if or when a temporary restraining order would be sought. Mooney said he was complying with the council’s directive, which asked the city attorney’s office “to explore the possibility of obtaining a temporary restraining order.”

The site, formerly known as the Breakers Seafood Restaurant, has been the focus of a dispute since July, when Extasy’s owners, a company called Seven for the Money Inc., applied for a zoning permit to open a juice bar there with nude dancers. The proposal quickly generated opposition from neighbors, local businesses and Bernson.

Two zoning inspectors, accompanied by plainclothes police officers, entered the club about 10 p.m. Thursday and issued the citations a short time later, said Art Johnson, chief of the department’s Bureau of Community Safety.

Before citing the owners, building inspectors warned them earlier Thursday that they could not legally operate without a zoning permit and would be cited if they went through with the announced opening, Johnson said.

The zoning classification for the area “does not allow adult entertainment and it does not allow striptease in particular,” Johnson said.

A nude dancing club there could only legally operate with a variance from the Office of Zoning Administration, which is part of the Department of City Planning, Johnson said.

The conditional-use permit that allowed Breakers Seafood Restaurant to open explicitly banned nude dancing on the site, Johnson said.

But the club’s owners maintain that it is in an industrial zone and thus needs no additional permit from the city. Gamer said he expected to win the court battle.

“These are nothing but citations. It’s just a matter of going down to City Hall and presenting our documents,” Gamer said. “We are here to stay. We are part of the neighborhood.”