Zoning rule restricts escort, outcall services

Friday, July 20, 2001 | 11:22 a.m.

Clark County commissioners have partially closed the door on business offices for escort bureaus and outcall entertainers, which, officials say, are magnets for crime.

The commissioners Wednesday passed new zoning regulations designed to keep the business offices out of residential neighborhoods.

Chuck Pulsipher, the county's zoning administrator, said the concern is that these offices bring crime into residential areas. Metro Police, he said, believe the offices serve as magnets for robberies, loitering and shootings.

Police have argued that such outcall services, which involve sending a dancer or model to a person's room or home, are nearly always fronts for prostitution. Hundreds of such services operate in the Las Vegas Valley and most are based in the unincorporated county.

The rule passed Wednesday requires the business offices to be at least 1,500 feet from homes, libraries, churches, parks, playgrounds and day care facilities.

The rule, which received unanimous support from the commission, was championed by Commissioner Erin Kenny.

"It's another step toward keeping our neighborhoods and our community the best that it can be," Kenny said.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Allen Lichtenstein, however, gave the new regulation a scathing review. He said it may encourage the new offices to move into industrial areas.

"This is just one more example of a lot of grandstanding by politicians that doesn't really matter," he said.

A legal challenge would throw the rule out, Lichtenstein said, noting that the federal Supreme Court has ruled that outcall dancing is a protected form of free speech.

Zoning rules can only be applied "on the showing of the government that there are negative secondary effects," which he predicted wouldn't work.

The offices for the businesses are usually little more than places to sign checks and receive phone calls. The dancers themselves often don't even visit the offices, outcall operators have said.

"Very clearly the standards that are required for other adult businesses do not apply when you're just talking about an office," he said.

Lichtenstein said, however, that potential operators may simply avoid a lawsuit and find offices that meet the zoning requirement.

Kenny, however, said she believes the zoning rule would stand up in court. The zoning rule doesn't threaten free-speech rights, but simply moves the offices out of residential areas, she said.

Pulsipher and Kenny said the need for the rule is demonstrated by a dramatic increase in the number of outcall-related arrests, many for prostitution, made by Metro during the past year.

Arrests were up 89 percent and totaled 270, Pulsipher said.

The city of Las Vegas in March passed a law that prohibits the offices from locating within 500 feet of homes and 1,500 feet from churches, parks or schools.