Neighbors to Discuss Noise From Area Bar

Fed up with late-night noise, neighbors of a sports bar are expected to converge tonight on their local neighborhood council to air their complaints.

But Simi Valley Police Sgt. Greg Riegert said the complaints about the Tree House Sports Bar and Grill come just as the bar’s noisiest nights have passed.

Young club-goers--who were squeezed out of a favorite hangout when renovations last year temporarily closed down Club FX at the Radisson Hotel--began flocking to the Tree House, he said.

Police and Tree House staffers blame the influx of 21- to 25-year-old club-goers for an increase in the number of fights, noise complaints and reported drunk drivers around the Tapo Street bar.

The Tree House was the target of 55 noise and disturbing-the-peace complaints in 1996, and police have answered 47 such calls in the past six months, Riegert said. Many of the complaints came from the nearby Park Lane townhomes, he said.

Meanwhile, Club FX reopened in October after renovations were completed, and the rowdier crowd has returned to the old haunt, which is more heavily patrolled by bouncers and lies far from residential neighborhoods, Riegert said.

What’s more, the Tree House’s owners have begun cracking down on loitering and loud chatter in the bar’s parking lot. Owner Deon Vanderwall said the bar staff has begun using bouncers and signs outside the bar to warn departing patrons about the city’s noise ordinances.

But Riegert said some neighbors are still complaining. “When the crowd was squeezed out of Club FX and going to the Tree House, that really sensitized the neighbors to [noise], and it was very objectionable,” Riegert said. “They have less people [at the Tree House] now . . . and the noise is less, but the residents are still sensitized.”

Neighborhood Council 3 is scheduled to meet at 7:30 p.m. in the City Hall Community Room, 2929 Tapo Canyon Road.