Residents said they brought the complaint before the commission because calling the police did no good.

Richard V. Scali, executive director of the commission, said he did not understand why guest traffic is so heavy.

"Why can't you lock the door so no one enters after midnight?" he said. "Why do people have to come and go at three and four in the morning? When I was a law student, I was in bed by one o'clock."

But Wiley said returning the society to an eating house, which several residents suggested, could prove even more disruptive.

"Where [the residents] live is not going to be heaven no matter what," he stated.

Wiley and Amuso did not express concern about what the commission might decide. "[The lodging license] is the only thing that they have any jurisdiction over," Wylie said.

The license allows seven club officers to live in the house and is conditional on several provisions, such as hiring a police officer to watch over parties, something Amuso said the society did not do at its party earlier in the year.

But even if the commission revokes the lodging license, the society will still have a permanent zoning variance, which allows it to function legally as a club, Wiley said.

And if the commission does strike down the license, all of the standing party restrictions would be dissolved, for they exist only as conditions of the license.

"Ironically, the city would lose what hold it has," Wylie said.

The commission voted to take the matter under advisement and is expected to render a decision today