GILROY
– Upset neighbors of the Adult Forum Social Club will have to
wait an uncertain amount of time to see operations cease at the
rural Gilroy sex club.
GILROY – Upset neighbors of the Adult Forum Social Club will have to wait an uncertain amount of time to see operations cease at the rural Gilroy sex club.
A letter from the county formally notifying the property owner, Ilyas Absar, of illegal activity in his Dryden Avenue rental home was returned by the post office early this week. The club, which began about a month ago renting Absar’s 10-acre property to host its partner-swapping sex parties, was given a Dec. 26 deadline to move out.
“What that does, realistically, is hold me to a new time schedule,” County Zoning Investigator Jim Lanz said Tuesday. “I got the address from the tax assessor’s office, but I have a second address that I will send another letter to this week.”
In a brief telephone interview Absar claimed he did not know about the illegal use of his property.
“I rent it out. I don’t live there. I don’t know anything about it,” Absar said before declining to comment further.
Absar is subject to $280 in fines per day based on two ongoing citations from the county, one for operating a private sex club on land zoned agriculture and residential, and another for a trailer without permits that apparently serves as a second or third dwelling unit.
Lanz said if he cannot make contact with the Absar by the end of January, the county may begin to deal with the club operators directly.
Ag-residential zoning allows for meetings of private clubs in certain situations, Lanz explained. If, for instance, an historical society meets in a structure designated historically significant, Lanz said a meeting could be permitted. In the case of the sex club, no such waiver applies, Lanz said.
It is unclear exactly how long the sex club has operated on the Dryden Avenue lot, but neighbors say they have heard parties at least the last three weekends. In the matter of the illegal dwelling unit, Lanz said Absar would have up to 30 days after notification to remove the trailer or get it properly permitted.
The Adult Forum Social Club is run by Deena Luce, who did not return phone calls before deadline.
About a month ago, Luce moved her club from a Monterey Road location in the City of Gilroy to the pink, adobe-style, Dryden Avenue home, about five minutes outside of town. In Gilroy, Luce received 20 citations from the Gilroy Police Department between Aug. 16 and Nov. 2 for operating a club without a business license.
Luce has contended that The Forum was a private social club, not a business. A pre-trial hearing is slated for Jan. 13. Luce could face roughly $18,000 in fines and more than eight years in jail.
Although neighbors are fed up with the noise and the cars that result from the Forum’s activities, which happen every Friday and Saturday night, not all of them are surprised the county will need extra time to shut operations down.
“The county has no choice, it has to follow rules and regulations. It can’t just tell someone to move out. It has to prove them wrong,” Forum neighbor Frank Caliri said.
Nonetheless, Caliri expects action.
“If you let them get away with it, everyone can start doing illegal things,” Caliri said. “I look at them as freeloaders.”
Caliri is trying to aid the effort to remove the sex club from the previously quiet northeast Gilroy neighborhood. He has drafted a letter to Supervisor Don Gage asking the county and law enforcement to resolve the issue “as quickly as possible” and he has garnered over 80 signatures from area residents opposed to having a sex club operate in the neighborhood.
Caliri said Tuesday he would send the letter “after the Christmas holiday.”
“We moved here so we could live on a few acres, have some elbow space and enjoy the serenity. We don’t need a sex club,” Caliri said. “If someone wants to buy my house, we’d have to disclose there is a sex club down the street. There’s no telling what that’d do to property values.”
Caliri’s family has lived on the property near Dryden Avenue for more than 100 years. His street, Caliri Court, is named after his family. Caliri said he did not intend to sell his home.
On its answering machine, the Adult Forum Social Club boasts two events for this weekend, a Friday night event featuring an exotic dancer and a Saturday night amateur dance contest with a $100 prize.
Jesus Hernandez, who lives across the street from the club, isn’t pleased.
“I’ve heard screaming there. It sounds like someone is getting hit,” Hernandez said. “I’ve had to call the police on them before. That’s the best way to deal with it.”
Hernandez, who has children living on his property, said he and other neighbors are not only impacted by the noise. The amount of cars is troubling to them, too.
“They park on their lot, but it gets full and then people park on our property. Sometimes they even park in the driveway,” Hernandez said.
