SETBACK FOR NUDE LOUNGE.

Byline: BRAD A. GREENBERG

Staff Writer

TARZANA -- The city is one step closer in its nine-year battle to get the Frisky Kitty's nude dancers to cover up.

As part of the ongoing court battle over the strip club, Judge Malcolm H. Mackey has thrown out the club's argument that it was not operating within 500 feet of residential property. He made the ruling Tuesday.

The judge did not order the Frisky Kitty, at Oxnard Street and Reseda Boulevard, to close. But the City Attorney's Office anticipates he will issue a permanent injunction against operation when he determines penalties June 19.

Roger Jon Diamond, the club's attorney, remains confident.

"If we should eventually lose in the trial court -- and we haven't lost yet -- but if we were to lose, we would have the right to appeal," he said Thursday. "This case has been all up and down the courts. We've been up to the Supreme Court, we've been up and down the federal court, the state court.

"This is just one small chapter in a long, never-ending book."

City Councilman Dennis Zine, whose district includes the all-nude club and who inherited the legal battle when he was elected in 2001, hailed Mackey's decision as tantamount to protecting the integrity of zoning laws.

"We are either going to prevail on the zoning ordinance or we are going to have a preschool next to a liquor store next to a massage parlor," Zine said. "That is what zoning is all about. It is very important we maintain that for the quality of life."

The club operated as a bikini bar during the early 1990s. In 1998, dancers went topless and later completely naked, forcing the club to give up its liquor license.

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