Retreat and Neighbors Talk Instead of Shout

A determined judge took a stab Tuesday at resolving the messy legal problems surrounding Fantasy Island, a glitzy retreat in the mountains of Agoura that hosts lavish weddings and bar mitzvahs, generating hundreds of noise- and traffic-related complaints.

Located in oak-studded Triunfo Canyon, Fantasy Island has been at the center of a five-year battle between its neighbors and Avi Datner, whose family owns the 23-acre site.

Its critics contend that Fantasy Island illustrates the county government’s failure to control the use of one of the most scenic areas of unincorporated land. Defenders argue that officials have mounted an unfair effort to appease angry neighbors at Datner’s expense.

The district attorney’s office has charged Datner with five complaints dealing with noise and nuisance problems at the retreat and is pursuing six charges against him, his sister, Shula Datner, and Fantasy Island’s corporate owner, Shula Inc., for operating without permits and business licenses.

In an effort to avoid a trial and resolve the complex conflict, Judge Lawrence J. Mira held a hearing Tuesday in his municipal courtroom, where the Datners and about a dozen of their neighbors as well as representatives from no less than five county agencies began to hash out their differences.

Neighbors such as Steve Gilbard complained of having to endure years of amplified music at weddings as well as noise generated by the retreat’s guests, who he said often honk their car horns as they depart Fantasy Island, sometimes in the early hours of the morning.

During one event, Gilbard recounted being so fed up with the noise that he got out his jackhammer and started breaking rocks.

“If I’m going to listen to him,” Gilbard said, “he’s going to listen to me.”

Neighbor Paul Culberg also voiced concerns that because Triunfo Canyon Road provides the only access to the area, traffic generated by Fantasy Island events could create serious risks in case of a wildfire.

County officials, however, testified that in terms of traffic, Fantasy Island is not violating any county ordinance.

The broader problem, according to some observers, is that the retreat is located in an area that was zoned for resort and recreation uses decades ago when it as far from the city, posing a challenge to officials faced with regulating such uses in a now-populated area in an age of amplified sound.

For example, the zoning allows the Datners to maintain an outdoor dance pavilion, which a county attorney decided could be a tent erected for no more than 180 consecutive days during a 12-month period.

But county officials contend that not only has the retreat’s 12,000-square-foot mega-tent dance pavilion been up since April 1996, they do not know if it is made of fire-resistant material.

“We do not know if this is actually a safe structure,” said Mark Pestrella of the Department of Public Works. “From a building and safety standpoint, the tent needs to come down.”

From the Datners’ viewpoint, according to defense attorney Richard Beada, it’s a significant problem that nobody has been able to assure them that if they take the costly steps to comply with county demands, they will be issued a business license and building permits.

“Nobody can say if we do all this stuff, we’ll issue you a permit,” Beada said. “Literally, we are being forced to expend funds blindly.”