GILROY
– Just days after the city of Gilroy and the owners and
operators of a swingers club reached a settlement over citations
dating from the days when the Forum Adult Social Club operated
within city limits, Owner Deena Luce and her business associates
have apparently vacated their newest home in an u
nincorporated area north of the city.
GILROY – Just days after the city of Gilroy and the owners and operators of a swingers club reached a settlement over citations dating from the days when the Forum Adult Social Club operated within city limits, Owner Deena Luce and her business associates have apparently vacated their newest home in an unincorporated area north of the city.
Where the club lands next is anyone’s guess, but due to the civil compromise they reached with the club’s owners this week, attorneys for the city say it probably won’t be in Gilroy.
Under the agreement filed Feb. 25, the city will not persist with the 20 citations for business licensing and zoning violations it filed against the Forum before it vacated its Monterey Road location last December.
In exchange, Luce will pay a $1,500 fine, and agree not to sue the city over First Amendment or other grounds, said Assistant City Attorney Jolie Houston.
Luce must also promise to obey the city laws in the future that relate to zoning or sexual encounter establishments. While the settlement is not a technical plea bargain or admission of guilt, it can be used as evidence of prior legal violations if the club returns and ends up back in court, Houston said, and it assumes the legal weight of a court order.
Each side is responsible for its own attorneys’ costs and legal fees.
Houston said Friday that the settlement achieves the city’s goals: keeping the club out of city limits and providing grounds for action if it returns.
“(The provision) about obeying the city’s laws and regulations really says she can’t come back to Gilroy via a sexual encounter establishment,” Houston said. “It’s the legal way of saying ‘You can’t come back to our town.’ ”
Luce’s attorney Kevin Hutcheson said Friday that he’s happy the two sides have resolved the case. But he said he’s still “very unhappy” about how the city treated his client.
“I think the city violated her First Amendment rights,” he said.
Houston disagreed.
“The city’s position is, has been and always will be that she had no First Amendment protection in that activity …” she said.
Hutcheson said a recycling business operated out of the same location the Forum did when it was within Gilroy city limits, but said the city did not show the same level of interest in that business and its licensing or zoning.
“It’s not a little garage – it’s two large buildings, and nobody cared,” he said. “I think the city treated her very unfairly and walked on her Constitutional rights.”
Houston said she was unaware of such a business.
“I don’t know anything about that,” she said. “It hasn’t come to my attention.”
After the Forum left its former home on Monterey Road next to the Zen Flower Garden in Gilroy in December, it landed in a ranch-style home at 2670 Dryden Ave. in a rural residential neighborhood – much to the chagrin of residents there, who held meetings with county officials and penned letters to show their displeasure with the club and concerns about noise and safety.
Neighbors on Dryden Avenue said Luce appeared at the house with a moving truck last Sunday, packed up the club’s hot tub and bar stools and drove away.
Neighbor Mike Dausend said Dryden residents are “hopeful” their interaction with the club is over, although they realize that things can always change.
“They do have a long-term lease,” he said. “I suppose they could always change their minds and move back, but we’re hopeful they left,” Dausend said.
County Zoning Investigator Jim Lanz said property owner Ilyas Asbar apparently served an eviction notice on the Forum.
Asbar is due to be in court April 1 for a citation Lanz issued him two weeks ago for improper zoning. But Lanz said Friday he will probably request a dismissal of the citation if things go as portrayed and the club is no longer doing business at the house. Unlike the city of Gilroy, which issued citations directly against club owner Deena Luce and club operators, the county interacted strictly with Asbar.
“My feeling is that the property owner did everything we could reasonably expect him to do to terminate the problem,” once he learned of it, Lanz said. “Apparently, he took an eviction action.”
Dryden residents now hope to restore their normal lives – and their neighborhoods – as quickly as possible, Dausend said.
“People have changed their habits and lifestyles because these people came in,” he said. “Hopefully, quickly they’ll revert back to normal and restore the reputation of our neighborhood.”
