City May Tighten Rules to Restrict Gay Sex Clubs

Officials have proposed strengthening city control of adult businesses after a receiving inquiries about opening a members-only club where gay men meet for sex.

Blue Fountain Inc., which runs one such club in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles, has told city planners it is interested in opening a second operation in an industrial area on San Fernando Road.

Because officials believe the club would not violate existing city zoning provisions, several council members have proposed amending those rules to restrict clubs to areas now open to adult businesses, such as bookstores and cinemas.

If opened, the club would be the first sexually oriented business in conservative Glendale since the city’s only adult bookstore closed down in the late 1980s.

“In essence, sexual encounter businesses are places where consenting adults would go to freely engage in casual sex with whoever happens to be there at the time, but not for payment or prostitution,” City Planning Director John McKenna said.

“I’m so naive, I didn’t know there were these types of places. I would have thought they would be illegal,” said Councilwoman Eileen Givens. “It’s not the type of business I’d like to see in our city.”

So far, the company has only expressed interest via written and verbal contact with city planners and has not made a formal proposal to open the club.

In a March 27 letter to city planners, Mitchell Edmonds, a principal of Blue Fountain Inc., said his company’s Silver Lake club has been open since 1977 and had “no negative impact on the neighborhood” and provides “a safe and private location where gay men can meet.” He said the club is discreet, with no signs outside indicating the nature of the business, and it is open to private members only.

“I asked them [the company] to describe their operation to me, and they said it was just like a bathhouse, only without the water,” said City Zoning Administrator Edith Fuentes.

Generally, cities have the power to restrict the location of adult businesses. Glendale’s ordinance restricts adult bookstores and cinemas to the downtown area and requires they be at least 500 feet from churches, schools, parks and residential zones, and at least 1,000 feet from any other adult business.

Under a proposed amendment, to be considered later this month, sex clubs would face the same restrictions.

Although new to Glendale, sex clubs have long been monitored by zoning officials in Los Angeles, where restrictions are even tougher. In addition to restricting the location of adult businesses, Los Angeles also adopted special restrictions in the 1980s for sex clubs, bathhouses and massage parlors, requiring them to pay a $4,539 fee and undergo a public hearing to obtain a conditional-use permit, said City Planner Paul Beard.

Officials with Blue Fountain could not be reached for comment.

Fuentes said she believes the sex club proposal may fizzle because if the amendment is passed, the company would have to request a variance to open the club at the proposed location, which would require a public hearing.

“I think that’s the last thing they want to do, to have a hearing and expose this issue,” she said.