EDITORIAL : HOLLYWOOD CLUBBED; L.A. COUNCIL DISPLAYS CONTEMPT FOR ITS OWN ZONING LAW.

Welcome to Los Angeles, a town where almost anything goes so long as it's agreeable to the local City Council representative.

That's the lesson to be drawn from Wednesday's typically political 8-4 decision by the council to approve a zoning variance that allows a hotly protested gay men's sexual encounter club in an East Hollywood residential neighborhood.

The variance was supported by district Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg and well-connected lobbyists, and that made it all right for most of her colleagues. Council members like to believe that their word is law when it comes to what they characterize as ``district matters.''

But the council's own zoning ordinance doesn't give that option to council members.

The ordinance regulating adult businesses prohibits encounter clubs in commercial zones within 500 feet of homes. Variances can be granted to conditionally waive the 500-foot rule, but only if five findings, mostly dealing with hardships, can be made.

Under one of those findings, the owner must in effect demonstrate that the site is unsuited for any of the many legal uses permitted in the commercial zone. That's preposterous in this instance.

Then there's the need to find that the encounter club wouldn't have an adverse impact upon the neighborhood. That's also preposterous, given the testimony of neighbors and the Police Department about the club, which opened in January and is operating without a permit.

Goldberg contended that problems can be handled by imposing conditions on the club dealing with hours, parking and so forth. But the same argument could be applied to just about any other forbidden use. And if the council gets in the habit of ignoring the required findings, might not anything and everything go so long as the district council member doesn't object?

Indeed, why not permit conventional houses of ill repute on the theory that they also are in the sexual encounter business? Is that what Goldberg and her supporters want? Is that what Los Angeles' increasingly discontented residents want? Of course not, as the councilwoman acknowledged most people in Los Angeles would vehemently oppose granting this variance.

The variance for the Santa Monica Boulevard encounter club now goes to Mayor Richard Riordan. We urge Riordan to veto what amounts to a special privilege for an unlawful enterprise - and make it clear that land uses are governed by the law, rather than the personal political agendas of individual council members.