Panel OKs Nude Juice Bar Over Residents’ Objections

Over the objections of residents and Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, the Police Permit Review Panel on Wednesday approved a nude juice bar in Van Nuys.

Opponents of the Spearmint Rhino bar won some concessions at the end of their two-year battle to keep the business out of their neighborhood. The concessions include promises the club would provide adequate parking and take measures to prevent drug use, prostitution and other “illegal or disruptive conduct.”

No alcohol will be served at the club, situated at 15004 Oxnard St.

In all, the bar consented to 19 conditions. It also agreed to post two uniformed security guards, prevent lewd conduct at the club and close by 4 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

The vote was unanimous, but one member voiced her sympathy for residents who had collected 200 signatures of those opposed to granting of the permit. The neighbors’ concern was heightened by the presence of another adult club, Ero’s Station, that opened last year, two blocks from the Spearmint Rhino club site.

Saying she lived in the San Fernando Valley, panel member Anita Castellanos told the homeowners she was “very sympathetic with the issues that bring you here.”

Castellanos urged residents to be watchdogs over the bar and to report any violations of the club’s permit to the police.

“It’s like every dog is entitled to his first bite,” Castellanos said. “This dog hasn’t bitten anybody yet. It’s going to be up to you to watch for that first bite.”

Glenn Barr, an aide to Miscikowski, objected that no public hearing had been held before the panel. He said Miscikowski had requested a hearing 16 months ago and that her office was assured repeatedly by Police Commission staff members that a hearing was possible and easy to arrange.

“It is incomprehensible how this oversight has occurred,” Barr said.

Ken Ferber, a spokesman for the Board of Police Commissioners, said there had been no oversight.

“There may be a misunderstanding of what is a public hearing. This is a public hearing,” Ferber said, referring to Wednesday’s meeting at which the vote was taken.

“We feel something of an end-run has been done around us,” said Richard Thompson, a homeowner who lives three blocks from the juice bar.

Management refused requests for other restrictions by neighbors.

Among them were requests that the club’s security guards be licensed by the state and that the hands of club patrons be stamped with ink, so that if they caused trouble in the neighborhood they could be easily identified by police.

Sgt. Kurt Blodgett of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Van Nuys Vice Unit also described several additional conditions he wanted the club to adopt. Those measures included prohibiting private parties and partitions within the club that could obstruct the view of law enforcement officers.

John Weston, the club’s attorney, said the additional requests were beyond what was legally required of the club and most of them duplicated conditions the bar had already agreed to.

“My client will conduct its business in an admirable way,” Weston said, “showing itself to be a good corporate citizen and an excellent neighbor.”