Panel Urges Restrictions on Motel : North Hills: The City Council committee wants the Redwood Inn to use guards to discourage prostitution.

In the latest action to crack down on crime along Sepulveda Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley, a committee of the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday recommended tough restrictions on a North Hills motel that police say is regularly used for prostitution.

The Planning and Land Use Committee upheld an earlier decision by a city zoning appeals panel to impose 26 conditions of operation on the Redwood Inn Motel. The committee also added a new one: that a guard patrol the motel 16 hours a day.

Motel representatives did not attend the City Hall hearing.

Police officers assigned to the area told the committee that investigations have shown that the motel’s managers know that the motel is used for prostitution and do nothing to stop it.

“It does seem to me that they were almost accomplices in the prostitution . . . that has gone on for almost three years,” said Officer John Girard, who was responsible for community-based policing in the area before he was transferred recently to a new area.

During one of several undercover investigations at the motel, Girard said, a Redwood Inn manager was arrested on pandering charges. And just hours before Tuesday’s hearing, a motel manager was caught renting rooms on an hourly basis--a violation of previous conditions imposed by the city, Girard said.

The motel is one of nearly a dozen along Sepulveda Boulevard that have been targeted by city zoning officials clamping down on prostitution and other crimes associated with motels.

The effort to crack down on Sepulveda Boulevard motels has been backed by Councilmen Marvin Braude and Joel Wachs, who say they have received many complaints about prostitution in the area.

A representative of the Redwood Inn Motel could not be reached by phone Tuesday, but the owner and his lawyer have said at previous hearings that they are willing to work with the city to eliminate the problems. They have said, however, that they cannot afford security guards to patrol the motel.

The zoning appeals board recommended in November that the motel be required to hire a guard to work from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., four days a week. But after hearing Girard’s testimony, Councilman Hal Bernson, chairman of the planning committee, suggested that the guard be posted between noon and 4 a.m. every day, the period when crime problems are most prevalent.

The recommendations will be considered by the entire council on March 29. If the conditions are approved, the motel owner would be required to draft a report within 90 days to show how the conditions were being met.