CrossFit Horsepower gym declared public nuisance in Hermosa Beach
The four year battle between CrossFit Horsepower gym and its neighbors in Hermosa Beach came to a head Tuesday night as the City Council officially deemed the business a public nuisance and ordered abatement measures, including reduced morning and evening hours and no use of free weights. An attorney representing the gym, Robert Crockett, said the measures would put Crossfit Horsepower out of business and strongly intimated a lawsuit is imminent.
Mayor Jeff Duclos, presiding over only a three-person council due to the recusal of two council members who live near the gym, cast a deciding vote in the matter.
“In relation to what has been presented and gone through, our job was to find if activity at Crossfit constitutes a nuisance, and in my opinion, I believe they do,” Duclos said. “So if they do, our job is really to order an abatement and come to a resolution of these problems. To me, the fact that a nuisance has been present and does exist and has since 2015 — without any concentrated effort to resolve — is indisputable.”
Crockett, who argued that no citation had ever been issued despite repeated visits by code enforcement officers, repeatedly implored the city to have a professional acoustic test of the area performed before taking action. He said the business conformed perfectly to the area’s light industrial zoning and that the noise issues do not exceed any legal standard. Crockett noted that CrossFit Horsepower is valued at $1.3 million and said he specializes in eminent domain law in cases in which his clients frequently obtain compensation.
“There is enough here for me to do that,” he said. “That is what you are looking at. I’m sorry, but you’ve made a mistake, and I urge you to table this…and get experts out there.”
“Do you want to spend a fortune on litigation or do you want to spend a few thousand dollars on an expert?” Crockett asked. “Why wouldn’t you do that?”
Duclos acknowledged the city had erred in allowing the gym as a use in light industrial zoning and praised owners Jed Sanford and Dan Wells as “honorable” but was adamant that the council was doing its lawful duty to protect residents’ quality of life. He said voluminous complaints and testimony from public hearings demonstrated that the gym is a nuisance to its neighbors and an acoustic test was therefore unnecessary to prove it.
“That information is not particularly necessary to demonstrate what needs to be demonstrated to know where a nuisance exists,” Duclos said.
City Attorney Michael Jenkins concurred.
“You don’t need an expert to tell you whether or not somebody is experiencing a disturbance,” he said.
The conflict began within months after the gym’s opening in September 2014. The site had been home to an auto repair shop for the previous four decades. Between Nov. 21, 2014 and May 18, 2015, the city received 98 emails from residents regarding loud music, weight noise, weight dropping, and vibrations, according to the city’s staff report. Those complaints have been ongoing, including 58 between Feb. 12 and June 26 of this year.
But Crockett contended those numbers mask the fact that the complaints emanated from a small number of people, and in fact more than half from a single resident — Larry Nakamura, whose Loma Drive home abuts the CrossFit gym. He said public records request revealed that many of those complaints were contained in a correspondence between Councilperson Stacey Armato and Nakamura and that Armato encouraged Nakamura to keep issuing complaints in order to “build the record” against his “terrible neighbors,” CrossFit Horsepower. Crockett further contended that Nakamura’s home, part of a four-plex on Loma Drive, encroaches on CrossFit’s property line.
“He moved there knowing that an industrial business was there,” Crockett said. “I mean, his property is buried in practically a tunnel, deep on the first floor of no view. When he walks, out my client’s business is rising 10 to 15 feet above his door. I would not want to live there. It’s not a pleasant place to live. The only thing he has to deal with on a day to day basis is a CrossFit studio.”
Crockett said that neighbors had refused to take part in an acoustic study because they knew — based on numerous visits by code enforcement that resulted in no citations — that no real violation of city code or standards existed.
“My client’s business is an admirable business — it’s the kind of business you want in your community,” he said. “They attract people who want to spend money, people who want to get fit, people who want to spend time working out and socializing and getting to know people. This is the kind of business you want for Hermosa Beach….Do they make noise? Yes, they make noise. Do they make the kind of noise that constitutes a public nuisance? Absolutely not.”
Councilperson Hany Fangary said he agreed that performing an acoustic test before ordering abatement would be preferable, particularly since such action may also help find remedies. He said that reducing hours — morning hours will be required to begin at 8 a.m., rather than 6 a.m., and the gym will be required to close at 6 p.m. — exactly targets the times when most people do CrossFit. And he said free weights are central to the entire philosophy of CrossFit.
“The business is just going to close down,” Fangary said. “And that should not be the approach we are trying to take here today.”
Armato noted that part of the abatement process would include an acoustic test but that the business should not be given yet more time to operate in a way that impinges on its neighbors’ lives.
“I think you have a right to operate your business until it interferes with the rights of residents…They had a chance to offer an abatement solution to staff and they refused and that is why we are here tonight,” Armato said.
Crockett described the prescription of abatement measure prior to doing acoustic tests “an abuse of process” and the entire proceeding equivalent to “a taking” of property rights. He said the city’s action would violate state law.
“Your city ordinance cannot trump the law,” he said. “You can’t. That is against the law; it would constitute a taking. So if you want to say, Mr. Mayor, well, these five or six people are annoying, their quality of life is less than it could have been, well, you have to follow state law. You can’t just put them out of business because they are annoying.”
Two former mayors, George Schmelzer and George Barks weighed in during public testimony. George Schmelzer defended Armato.
“If the worst criticism she gets is what she got tonight, you can be considered a successful councilwoman,” he said. “Spending too much time with your constituents is not a crime. It’s what you were elected to do.”
“Jed Sanford is a professional businessman in Hermosa Beach and he went out of his way to try to abate the impacts that the residents are talking about,” Barks said. “My concern would be due process, justice, and fairness, and the city avoiding a lawsuit. And I’m serious about that.”