SIMI VALLEY : Candidate Fights Plan for Nude Dance Club

Aiming to squelch plans for a nude dance club in Simi Valley, state Assembly candidate Steve Frank led club opponents in protesting the plan at a news conference and a City Council meeting Monday.

More than 100 residents attended the council meeting to protest the club--which would include a movie theater, live dance club and retail shop. Plans for the club were submitted to the city by Philip Young, a Las Vegas real estate developer.

Six months ago, Young filed a $1.5-million suit against the city for blocking his last attempt to open a similar club. The suit is pending.

Frank said he hopes that the city will again thwart Young’s efforts.

“A place like this would bring in the perverts from all over Ventura County,” Frank said. “It is not the type of place for a community that places so much emphasis on the family.”

The club would be at 585 Los Angeles Ave. in one of a string of run-down strip malls on the city’s west end, sandwiched between the busy thoroughfare and a drainage channel.

The club would be housed in a now-vacant space in a two-story building, behind a gun outlet and tall-men’s clothing store. Across the parking lot are a nail salon, bikini shop and doughnut shop.

Frank said that if the club opens, he and other opponents will aggressively discourage business by recording vehicle license plate numbers and publishing photos of patrons in the newspaper.

Frank’s public pronouncements Monday were more a means to announce his opposition than a call for immediate city action against the club. The council will not consider the matter until after it goes to the Planning Commission later this summer.

In the meantime, Frank plans to launch a massive anti-club petition drive, which he will lead while simultaneously campaigning to unseat incumbent Paula L. Boland (R-Granada Hills) for the 38th Assembly District seat.