County imposes moratorium on adult business applications

Adrienne Packer

Thursday, Aug. 19, 1999 | 11:28 a.m.

Just days before Clark County officials were to approve an ordinance restricting adult-oriented businesses, a popular fitness center slipped in an application to convert its gym into a cabaret.

The move by Sporting House helped prompt Clark County commissioners to impose a moratorium Wednesday on adult business applications retroactive to July 20 when board members first suggested such action.

Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates recommended the moratorium in July to protect the county from an influx of applications if the board couldn't agree on a new ordinance that would bump distance requirements between adult shops from 500 feet to 1,000 feet.

"Thank goodness we passed it so we are where we are today because we couldn't approve this ordinance," Atkinson Gates said.

However, the moratorium ordinance doesn't necessarily protect the county from a barrage of applications. Assistant Planning Director Lesa Coder said the moratorium retroactive to July 20 won't be implemented until 5 p.m. on Sept. 1.

Applications approved before that date, will be honored. Coder said it typically takes 15 days for a land use application to be processed.

On Wednesday the board asked planning staff to redraft its distance ordinance because of wording that said the law would be implemented 30 days after approval, rather than the traditional 14-day time period.

The Sporting House on Industrial Road was one of two businesses that put in for an adult club permit after the board's July meeting; Herda's Bar and Grill on Highland Drive also submitted an application which will be killed by the moratorium ordinance if it isn't approved by Sept. 1.

The board feared even more petitions would be filed if business owners had until the end of September.

County attorney Rob Warhola said for legal reasons the county should not make the moratorium retroactive and instead activate it on Sept. 2 -- 14 days after it was officially adopted.

He said the county was safe because applications recently submitted would not be processed by the time the moratorium goes into effect.

But board members sided with Las Vegas city attorneys and City Councilman Michael McDonald -- who helped Commissioner Lance Malone draft a distance ordinance that matches the city's requirements.

McDonald said the city implemented a similar retroactive law and survived legal challenges.

He told commissioners if the moratorium was not enacted retroactively, opportunists would flock to the planning division to submit their applications.

"People will be trying to make an end-around to get it in," said McDonald, who left his City Council meeting Wednesday just after voting to evict the city sexually oriented business Hot Stuff. "It will be ollie ollie oxen free, I was here before the ordinance so you have to grandfather me in."

Malone said he decided to draft the ordinance after he drove down Industrial Road and noticed a cluster of strip clubs and sex shops. He feared that business owners who were turned down by Las Vegas because of its 1,000-foot distance requirement were approaching the county.

The commissioner had intended to introduce the ordinance in early July, but it was pulled from the agenda.

Critics now say Malone took the item off the agenda to give Olympic Garden owner Pete Eliades time to consider whether he wanted to buy the Sporting House. Others said Malone's close friend McDonald pushed him to draft the ordinance to protect McDonald's friend Rick Rizzolo, owner of the Crazy Horse Too.

Malone denied both theories and maintained the reason he adopted the ordinance is he believes it is good for the community.

"This is a good ordinance that will protect the hotel industry," said Malone, who added he is willing to go to court to protect the retroactive moratorium. "We will be aggressive and take it all the way to court. We're on solid legal ground and we should stand our ground."

Malone said he was surprised that Sporting House submitted its application Aug. 13 because owner Corey Jenkins repeatedly told him and the media the gym is not for sale and he has no intention of transforming it into a strip club.

Jenkins maintained he has no plans to convert the fitness club, but submitted his application to protect his property rights.

The Sporting House is 1,062 feet from another sexually oriented business, Hide and Seek, on South Highland Drive. Under the proposed ordinance, the Sporting House would be too close to the adult club to open a cabaret. The draft ordinance measures the distance between adult businesses from property line to property line in contrast to the existing law that measures door to door.

The county's planning department came to Wednesday's meeting armed with statistics that officials said prove the need to increase its distance requirements.

Metro Police reports show its calls decreased by 22 percent in areas where the distance between adult clubs was increased from 500 feet to 1,000 feet. Calls increased by 81 percent in neighborhoods where a new club opens within 500 feet of another cabaret or sex shop.

Sgt. Stan Olson told commissioners that extra distance between businesses prevents disruptive customers from hopping from strip club to strip club.

"Right now, if they get nixed by the bouncer, they'll just go next door and the problem continues," Olson said.