RESEDA : Neighbors Balk at Club Liquor Permit

It’s hard to run a concert hall without a liquor license, say owners of the Country Club. And it’s difficult to support the Reseda club’s serving liquor given its past, say some neighbors.

The 1,000-seat Country Club at 18415 Sherman Way has applied for city permission to sell alcohol--and thereby lure bigger acts and more patrons--for the first time since 1988, when its permit was revoked after a decade of complaints.

The club has been under new ownership since 1991, but many in the area remember the rowdy old days well, and are objecting loudly to the application.

Once the king of rock music clubs in the Valley, the business had weathered nearly a decade of complaints from nearby residents and businesses by the time it lost its liquor license in 1988.

Neighbors reported fights, vandalism, people urinating in their driveways and copulating in their yards.

“Bottles all over the street. People drunk and disorderly. Parking problems,” recalled Nerses Festekjian, who said he had run a swap meet next door to the Country Club since 1987.

Tony Longval bought the club in 1991, and according to many, took care of most of the problems quickly.

On the board of directors of the Reseda Chamber of Commerce and a well-known youth supporter, Longval has garnered considerable support with pledges of strict concert security and a community-minded business.

At a hearing on a conditional use permit to serve alcohol--to be held Aug. 1 at 2:30 p.m. in the Sherman Oaks Woman’s Club, 4808 Kester Ave.--Longval will have the support of not only Councilwoman Laura Chick’s office, but of the Los Angeles Police Department.

“LAPD has been working with them, and they feel very comfortable about the conditions,” said Chick spokeswoman Denise Schall. According to Schall, the Country Club has applied for and received temporary permits to serve alcohol at several individual events since 1988. Granting a permanent permit, she said, would actually require the club to meet more stringent requirements and allow police to more strictly govern its operating procedures.

Chamber Executive Director Anne Kinzle said, “The past problems are past problems. I can’t understand their opposition.

“This is going to be the entertainment capital of the Valley,” she continued, and would give Reseda a much-needed economic boost. Many neighbors agree. Some are also still leery.

Like several other nearby business owners, Festekjian said Longval had indeed improved the club since taking over and had gone out of his way to address neighbors’ concerns. But he wondered if the problems like those of the past were unavoidable when mixing alcohol, music and 1,000 people.

“I really like the guy (Longval) and I’d like to see him succeed, but I don’t think liquor is the answer,” Festekjian said.