A New Orleans zoning agency has rebuffed an attempt to halt construction of a new clubhouse for the Audubon Park golf course.

The Board of Zoning Adjustments voted unanimously this week to uphold the city's decision to issue a building permit for the 7,800-square-foot clubhouse, to be built just north of Magazine Street.

Keith Hardie Jr., attorney for the organization Save Audubon Park, had asked the board to overrule the decision by Paul May, director of the Department of Safety and Permits, to issue the permit.

Hardie's appeal focused on the amount of food service planned at the clubhouse, which he said is so extensive that the building would amount to a restaurant, which is illegal at the site under the city's zoning law.

Audubon officials disputed that claim, saying the building will offer only the type of food service typical of golf clubhouses.

The Department of Safety and Permits issued a building permit for the clubhouse June 17.

Audubon Nature Institute officials signed a $2.1 million contract June 14 with Gootee Construction to build the clubhouse and a nearby shed to store golf carts.

The golf course, closed for the past year for a $6 million reconstruction, is scheduled to reopen Oct. 16. The cart storage shed is expected to be ready by then. The course will be managed from a temporary office, probably a trailer, until the clubhouse is finished in mid-January.

Under the city's zoning ordinance, Save Audubon Park's appeal said, a restaurant is not a permitted use in Audubon Park outside of Audubon Zoo. The only food service allowed at the clubhouse site is a concession stand, it said. But, it said, the clubhouse's "large commercial kitchen and dining areas can only reasonably be used as a restaurant."

Hardie said the planned kitchen and dining area will be far more extensive than the food facilities at the golf course's former clubhouse on Walnut Street. That clubhouse, though on the edge of the course, was privately owned and operated. Hardie said it offered only cold sandwiches, drinks, chips and candy bars, not hot food or full meals.

But Henry "Tut" Kinney, attorney for the Audubon Nature Institute and Audubon Commission, told the board that the food service is expected to account for only 9 percent of the clubhouse's total revenue, with the rest coming from golf operations and golf-related sales.

Under the law, he said, a business cannot be classified as a restaurant unless at least 50 percent of its revenue comes from food operations.

The board unanimously approved a motion by Gloria Bryant-Banks to uphold May's ruling that the clubhouse would not be a restaurant and therefore was entitled to a building permit.

But the board attached three provisos to its approval: that the clubhouse must be open to the public; that it must operate in conjunction with the golf course, not as an independent restaurant; and that Audubon officials must seek to minimize noise from the clubhouse and any other potentially negative effects on neighbors.

Kinney said the provisos present no problem because they are in line with what Audubon officials always planned. "There will be no adverse effects on the neighborhood," he said.

Save Audubon Park can appeal the zoning board's decision to Civil District Court. Hardie said the group will wait until it sees the official wording of the provisos before it decides what to do.

Save Audubon Park was formed in 2001 to oppose plans for rebuilding the golf course and building the clubhouse. It has since extended its criticism to other aspects of the way the Audubon Nature Institute and Audubon Commission manage Audubon Park and other facilities.

The nonprofit institute operates the facilities for the commission, a city agency.