Sunset Strip Clubs Tune In to Neighbors : West Hollywood: Fear of possible regulation has made nightclub owners more responsive to residents’ complaints about noise and traffic.

It was a meeting of unlike minds.

On the one hand, there was the group of West Hollywood residents who for years have protested the unruly crowds and noise generated by a handful of nightclubs along Sunset Boulevard. On the other hand, there was Mario Maglieri, a club owner himself.

Maglieri had agreed to listen to the residents’ complaints, and to try to hammer out solutions. When all was said and done, a new era of cooperation had been proclaimed.

“This is a breakthrough,” commented Rachelle Sommers Smith, leader of the West Hollywood Northwest Residential Assn. “Both sides have finally reached out. There is a common recognition that we have to live together, that we each have a right to a proper quality of life.”

The problem is not a new one. The Sunset Strip has been famous, and occasionally notorious, for its night life for decades. Clubs proliferated there in the 1950s and ‘60s when West Hollywood was unincorporated, taking advantage of county laws that were more permissive than those of Los Angeles. Several still-thriving clubs, including the Whisky A Go Go and Gazzarri’s, date from the early 1960s.

West Hollywood and Los Angeles residents who live near the nightclubs have long claimed that the owners ignore complaints about loud music blaring late into the night and cars racing up and down nearby residential streets.

Residents also have complained about traffic congestion around the clubs as well as patrons dropping trash on lawns and urinating in bushes.

In recent months, some of the club owners seem to be paying more heed to these complaints than before. While they say they are simply trying to be good neighbors, the new attentiveness is occurring as West Hollywood officials show signs of giving closer scrutiny to the clubs’ various operating licenses at renewal time and strongly encouraging the owners to respond to residents’ complaints.

“I know there are problems; I can see what’s going on,” Maglieri said. “But right now we’re going in the right direction. I can’t satisfy everyone, but I am trying to do everything that I can to help.”

Maglieri, who is part owner of the Roxy, the Rainbow Bar & Grill and the Whisky A Go Go, has agreed to, among other things, hire a private security company to patrol the area between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. on weekend nights and a security guard to staff one of the club’s parking lots.

In addition, he said, he will continue to have crews clean up garbage along Sunset Boulevard and adjoining streets after the clubs close, and he has begun to soundproof the three clubs by installing four-inch-thick acoustical material.

Dianne Gazzarri-Shore, owner of nearby Gazzarri’s, has expressed a similar willingness to sit down with residents to address their grievances.

“This is a lot like a homeowners dispute,” Gazzarri-Shore said. “If there is someone on my street who has a problem, I would hope to resolve it face to face rather than going to a third party. It makes sense to do it friendly. There is no need to involve outside mediators.”

Gazzarri-Shore said she employs three security guards and a parking-lot attendant to keep peace outside the club. In addition, she said, plans are in the works to soundproof the inside.

Gazzarri-Shore said she was recently contacted by the Northwest Residential Assn. and plans to meet with it in the coming month.

Still, many residents remain skeptical about whether the owners will make good on their promises.

“Words, words, words--we’ve heard it all before,” commented Walter Decaen, whose Devlin-Clark Neighborhood Watch Group took part in the meeting with Maglieri. “Once again, we’re being paid lip service. Here they are promising us the world, but they won’t deliver. They’re business people, making a profit to the detriment of their neighbors.”

Decaen, whose neighborhood is across the city line in Los Angeles, said that he has met twice with other club owners in the last five years and that on both occasions promises have gone unfulfilled.

Some West Hollywood officials, while hopeful that relations between club owners and residents are warming, also are skeptical about the owners’ intentions.

“I think the clubs are a little afraid of the city, that we’ll impose regulations,” said Carol Ellis, who chairs the city’s business license commission. “They don’t want to end up having to go before the City Council and argue for their licenses. They are learning that there are needs that must be addressed and they had better listen. It is in their best interests to coexist peacefully with residents.”

Maglieri recently went before the commission to get a dance license for the Rainbow Bar & Grill. He was granted a one-year license, conditional on his meeting with the residents and following through on measures they agreed to. The commission will review the license the first week of June.

Still, some officials say that the owners are sincere in their efforts and that they are being criticized for a problem they cannot control.

“Young people come to the Sunset Strip to cruise,” said Ann Browning, the city’s planning manager. “A lot of them don’t even go to the clubs. Owners can’t be expected to walk up and down the streets like sheriffs.”

As a result of pressure from residents two years ago, the City Council instituted permit parking in the neighborhoods around the Sunset Boulevard clubs. Officials hoped that the new restrictions would alleviate parking problems. The measure instead spurred patrons to park across the West Hollywood city line in Los Angeles, less than three blocks to the north, residents say.

The West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station also instituted weekend foot patrols about a year and a half ago.

Still, the problems persist. Perhaps that is why many city officials welcome the recent meeting between the neighborhood group and Maglieri as a practical way to handle a thorny problem.

When the owners of Peanuts, a Santa Monica Boulevard nightclub that has long been a source of irritation for residents, were recently called before the city’s business license commission for a review of their dance license, they were told to sit down with residents and make some changes. A meeting is scheduled for Monday.

“We want our businesses and our residents to find common ground,” said Patty Frank, the city’s neighborhood services specialist. “Both sides should realize that compromise can be advantageous. Both sides have reasonable needs.”