SIMI VALLEY : Foes Blast Bar Plan for Nude Dancing

The topic wasn’t even on the agenda, but that didn’t keep some Simi Valley residents attending Monday’s City Council meeting from blasting a proposed Los Angeles Avenue nightclub that would feature nude dancing.

“I’m not going to stand for this,” Joseph Trematore said during the public comment segment of the meeting. “This isn’t something we want here.”

“It just seems strange to me that the thing went through without anybody saying anything about it,” said Marvin Banks. “It’s like--bingo--there it is . . . . It just disturbs me.”

Philip Young, a Las Vegas real estate entrepreneur, said he bought the shop ping center at 999 Los Angeles Ave. from the Resolution Trust Corp. at a Dec. 8 auction. The sale is expected to close escrow within two weeks. Separately, Young received city approval late last month to remodel the 11,000-square-foot center so that nearly half its space could be leased by the adult business.

The next step in opening the club would be the issuance of building permits for the remodeling work after city building inspectors review the plans, officials said.

Young said the club, which would not sell alcoholic beverages, would feature a stage with a catwalk for dancers, semi-private booths and other facilities.

The proprietor of the club, who has not been identified, is tentatively planning to call it The Simi Dancing Bear, Young said.

Simi Valley is currently drafting an ordinance to regulate adult-oriented businesses, but Mayor Greg Stratton said last week that the proposed ordinance would not preclude a nude-dancing establishment in Young’s shopping center.

The council had no formal response to the residents’ concerns, but Stratton said the city Planning Commission will consider the adult-business ordinance Feb. 17.

“While we have been stressing economic development, this is not what we had in mind,” Stratton said.