The Forum Adult Social Club in Gilroy has been given notice to
pack up and move out
– again.
The Forum Adult Social Club in Gilroy has been given notice to pack up and move out – again.
The partner-swapping sex club, which recently moved into a home at 2670 Dryden Ave. in northeast, unincorporated Gilroy, must move out by Dec. 26, Santa Clara County Zoning Investigator Jim Lanz said Friday.
After going to the property last week and interviewing neighbors, Lanz decided that The Forum does not fit within the county’s zoning requirements.
“I sent a letter out to the owner Monday,” he said. “But there hasn’t been any communication one way or the other (since).”
The letter was sent to Ilyas Absar, who is registered as the property owner by the county assessor’s office. It states that the sex club must be out of its home on Dryden by Dec. 26.
Absar did not return phone calls.
“It’s a basic, simple zoning issue,” Lanz said. “We’ll see what happens.”
The Forum left south Gilroy after receiving 20 citations from the Gilroy Police Department between Aug. 16 and Nov. 2 for operating a club without a business license. At the time, Deena Luce said The Forum was a private club, not a business.
Luce showed up at court for the first time Thursday – she has skipped previous hearings – at a pre-trial hearing in San Martin for the citations.
Luce’s Attorney Kevin Hutcheson – who has appeared at several other hearings for the citations and registered not-guilty pleas – and Gilroy Assistant City Attorney Jolie Houston asked for and were granted a request by Superior Court Judge Kenneth Shapero to delay the pre-trial hearing until Jan. 13.
Houston and Hutcheson would not comment on the reasoning behind the request, and both declined to comment while scurrying out of the court house.
“We’ll either resolve it (on Dec. 12) or get ready to go to trial,” Houston said following a Nov. 5 hearing on the citations.
Luce could be facing almost $18,000 in fines and more than eight years in jail.
Luce did apply for a business license through the city in August, but the application was denied because the land was residentially zoned. The club is open from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday nights and charges $40 to $60 for entrance.
When the club was operating in its old location on Monterey Road, it was treated as business operating without a license, but Lanz said he is not making that distinction.
“I’m not treating it as a sex-club business,” he said. “We’re looking at it as a private club. It doesn’t matter what they do in there.”
According to Lanz, The Forum is illegally operating on land zoned for agriculture. Agricultural lands are available for many purposes, including raising livestock, agricultural research, dairies and butcheries, but not for private clubs.
If The Forum doesn’t move out by the Dec. 26 deadline, Lanz said he would contact Absar to make sure he is taking care of the situation and could give the club a few more days to move out.
“Typically, I will attempt to make additional contact,” he said. “I tell them I want to avoid legal proceedings, and I may let it slide until the end of the month.”
However, if the club continues to operate into January, the penalties could add up.
“There could be citations for Absar all the way back to the time we can establish they moved in,” Lanz said.
The property at 2670 Dryden could receive two citations per day for operating a prohibited private club and for an illegal secondary dwelling – a mobile home on the proerty not associated with the sex club.
Neighbor Frank Caliri said he hopes the club moves by the deadline and is placing his trust in the county. He is trying to work with other neighbors to organize a letter for District 1 Supervisor Don Gage.
“We’re trying to stay alert and do what we can to help the county,” he said. “I hope (Lanz) is right, and we get them out of here.”
Meanwhile, Caliri said the neighborhood just has to wait and put up with all the inconveniences – late-night parties and a steady stream of cars driving by late at night.
“It seems those people have a lot of gall,” he said. “They know they’re not wanted, but they still do what they want to do.”
