Court Order Shuts Nude Dance Club : Northridge: Extasy owners say the closure, sought by the City Council, is temporary and circulate a petition.

A Northridge club, hit by a restraining order because it features nude dancing, was closed by its owners Friday while they try to get the order rescinded.

“We’re going to keep closed until we get things sorted out with the judge. It’s all up to the attorneys,” said Mike Saalih, co-owner of the Extasy club. “We still think we’ll be able to open up later.”

The club on Corbin Avenue at Nordhoff Street opened nine days ago amid controversy over its zoning permit and whether the permit allows nude dancing. It was the target of protests from neighborhood groups before it opened, leading to a City Council effort to close the club.

Saalih maintains that Extasy has the proper zoning for nude entertainment but said the owners decided--on the advice of their attorney--to shut its doors to avoid antagonizing the judge hearing the case.

Superior Court Judge Robert O’Brien ordered the club Thursday to stop offering nude or striptease dancing until a Feb. 19 hearing in Van Nuys Municipal Court on its zoning status.

The order does not require the club to shut its doors, only to stop offering nude dancing, said Ted Goldstein, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office. The office sought the order Thursday at the direction of the council.

If the club owners violate the order, they could be held in contempt of court, which is punishable by a $1,000 fine and a year in County Jail, Goldstein said.

But the owners, who opened the club in the face of neighborhood and city opposition and have vowed to fight all efforts to close it, hope to continue to offer some type of adult entertainment there. The owners have a valid permit to offer lounge or cabaret entertainment or opera, Goldstein said.

Patrons on Friday were met by an employee who asked them to sign a petition to support nude dancing at Extasy.

“We’ve already got over 3,500 names total, including a couple hundred in the past few hours,” club spokesman Wendy Paradise said about 5:30 p.m. “We want to show that for as many people who are against it, there are at least as many people who are for it too.”

The club, on the site of the former Breakers Seafood Restaurant, has been the focus of a dispute since July, when Extasy’s owners applied for a permit to open a juice bar with nude dancers. The conditional-use permit that allowed the Breakers to open explicitly banned nude dancing, city inspectors said.

Building inspectors cited the Extasy’s owners when the club opened, saying it was operating in violation of its zoning permit.

The owners maintain that only “stripping as part of a dance performance is banned.” Extasy dancers do not strip during the dances, the owners said, but instead remove their clothes offstage between musical numbers and are therefore legally not strippers.

O’Brien rejected that argument Thursday when granting the order.