West Hollywood : Meeting on Nightclub Noise

West Hollywood business regulators on Tuesday told the owner of the controversial Peanuts nightclub to go back to the negotiation table with neighbors who are demanding that the club be closed as a public nuisance.

The city Business License Commission also directed club owner Josh Feld to hire a sound expert in hopes of finding a way to reduce noise from the club--a key complaint of the neighbors who live behind the bar at 7969 Santa Monica Blvd.

The commission put off scheduling a license-revocation hearing that would focus on charges that the club has failed to meet noise-control conditions placed on its license two years ago.

Feld has clashed sporadically for years with a neighborhood group that says the bar is noisy and fails to control patrons after they leave. Feld insists that he has lived up to past agreements and is being blamed even for noise not produced by his club, newly renamed 7969.

The city has arranged previous truces, but the fight flared anew after two shootings at the club during a teen-age dance party in July. A 15-year-old girl was injured in one incident.