Community Protest Fails to Shut Down Gay Bathhouse : Regulation: Zoning official says there’s no evidence that sexual activity occurs at the Wilmington establishment.

A Los Angeles zoning official has decided to allow a gay bathhouse in Wilmington to remain open because the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety did not prove its allegation that the club is used as a place for sex.

Zoning Administrator James Crisp on Tuesday overturned a building and safety department order for the bathhouse to close, citing lack of evidence.

Martin Benson, owner of the bathhouse, known in the area as “Wilmington,” maintains that it is a health club, not a sex club, his attorney said.

If residents continue to try to close the bathhouse, Benson will counter with a “malicious harassment” lawsuit, attorney Roger J. Diamond said.

“There’s no litter or noise coming from the area, no drunken patrons or patrons doing things like graffiti,” Diamond said. “If the people were not homophobic we’d have no problem.

“This is not unlike neighborhood vigilante groups getting together to try to chase out persons of different color or different religions,” Diamond said.

A city ordinance adopted in March, 1988, bans sex clubs, adult bookstores, massage parlors and nude shows within 500 feet of homes, schools, churches and parks.

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The Wilmington bathhouse is two blocks from a residential area, half a block from one school and near three churches. Residents, church pastors and school principals have asked the city to close the bathhouse and have vowed to continue to try to close it.

Residents have until Sept. 27 to file an appeal with the zoning appeals board. Dan Snyder, senior investigator for the building and safety department, said the paperwork is being prepared.

“I have a sense that people here in the community are determined to see this place out of the community because it really is a blight,” said Father Peter Irving, pastor of the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul. Irving submitted a letter last month urging Crisp to close the bathhouse.

“We are tired of the delays and demand that immediate and strict enforcement of the law be applied in this case,” Irving wrote. “If the legitimate rights of the residents of this community continue to be ignored, we are vowed to avail ourselves of any and all means legal to ensure that justice is finally served.”

Irving said charges of homophobia are being used as a smoke screen to obscure the issue of illegal sexual activity at the bathhouse.

“That term is always thrown around these days. That place just isn’t in keeping with the community standards here in Wilmington. These are family-oriented people who are concerned about their neighborhood.”

Crisp heard testimony for and against the Anaheim Boulevard bathhouse last month, but said that he needed more evidence before determining whether the Department of Building and Safety acted appropriately in ordering the bathhouse closed.

He gave city officials two weeks to provide more evidence, but nothing more was submitted.

At last month’s hearing, Crisp said he had only a handwritten note by building and safety officials that said a Los Angeles Police Department sergeant had witnessed patrons masturbating and had seen signs for other sex contests.

But because of an administrative glitch, the officer, Sgt. Joel Berk, was not notified of the hearing, and no one testified before Crisp other than Wilmington residents and the bathhouse manager.

The building has been operating as a gay bathhouse since 1974. The former owner acknowledged that it was used as a place for sex, and after the 1988 law was enacted, received an extension to operate the business until March 6, 1991. Benson bought the bath house in May, 1990, but maintains it has not functioned as a sex club since its purchase. Last April the building and safety department ordered the bathhouse closed after Berk visited it.

The building contains two saunas and several resting rooms for patrons to use after the sauna.