BURBANK : City Braces for Health Club Applications

When a four-month moratorium on health clubs lifts in Burbank next week, officials expect as many as a dozen wanna-be clubs to make an application for business licenses.

“There have been a lot of inquiries,” said Terre Hirsch, the license and code supervisor for Burbank.

The Burbank City Council imposed a moratorium on new fitness clubs in December after residents accused clubs of closing down without providing services or refunds. During the freeze on new health clubs, the city established requirements for the businesses that include posting a bond of at least $75,000--or 5% of the clubs’ gross receipts from its previous year--to ensure that membership fees can be returned if a club closes.

“According to the (health club) industry, the imposition of a bond is not as onerous as one may think,” Hirsch said, adding that several other Southern California municipalities had already established a bond requirement, including Santa Monica, Thousand Oaks and Palmdale.

“It’s become a standard for the industry,” Hirsch said.

The moratorium is to be lifted at the end of this week, Hirsch said.

Only one health club had been caught during the moratorium, the Family Workout fitness center, which is trying to reopen under new ownership after its closure last fall had prompted the city to investigate how to regulate the health club industry. It had applied for a permit just before the moratorium went into effect.

The number of health clubs that have shown an interest in Burbank since the moratorium went into effect did not surprise Hirsch.

“We’ve had a lot of health clubs come and go in town,” he said.