Goodman backs expansion of sex businesses

Diana Sahagun

Monday, July 22, 2002 | 11:09 a.m.

Businesses affected

Source: Las Vegas Planning Department

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is backing a proposal that would allow up to seven sexually oriented businesses in the Industrial Road area to expand.

The businesses, including the Crazy Horse Too and Cheetah's strip clubs and several adult bookstores, are currently banned from expanding, because they conflict with the city's zoning code and are classified as "nonconforming."

The proposed ordinance, introduced last week, would allow all nonconforming clubs in the industrial area to expand. Goodman said he decided to propose the bill after being advised of a city project that would widen Industrial Road to six lanes, adding that he didn't want "any more legal challenges."

Currently, even if the city project were to shave off portions of the clubs' properties, the property owners would not be allowed to expand to make up the difference, because they are classified as nonconforming.

Goodman's proposal comes as Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates is trying to tighten restrictions on lap dances at strip clubs. Atkinson Gates' proposal would limit the amount of touching between the patron and dancer, and do away with a common tipping method in strip clubs -- stuffing dollar bills in the G-string.

The commissioners are scheduled to discuss the proposal July 31. City staff members are drafting a similar plan.

While the potential for the clubs to expand, even double in size, could affect neighboring topless establishments, Pete Eliades, who owns the Olympic Garden on Las Vegas Boulevard, said he's not concerned.

"I don't worry about it," Eliades said. "When I opened my business, I took all these things into consideration. When they see you do business, someone else is going to open bigger and better. How can you stop it?"

City Attorney Brad Jerbic said Goodman's proposal would reclassify all of the nonconforming businesses in the industrial area as "conforming" if they were classified as nonconforming through no fault of their own.

Although city code prohibits sexually oriented businesses from being within 1,000 feet of each other, the city in recent years has changed the way it measures the distance between two businesses.

At one time the city measured distance from the nearest pedestrian path. The city later changed the code to measure from the nearest property line. As a result of changes to the code, some clubs became nonconforming.

A church or a school moving within 1,000 feet of a sexually oriented businesses could also cause a club to become nonconforming, Jerbic said.

"If you have a church put in knowing what's around you, what we say in the law currently is you can't build a sexually oriented business near a church," Jerbic said. "That's to protect the people who are already there.

"On the other hand, if someone opens next to you, that's very different. They have chosen to locate next to a business like this. The way it's written today, (the sexually oriented business) loses the ability to enlarge.

"You're frozen as a nonconforming use, and you haven't done anything to cause it."

The bill, which was introduced last week, will be heard by a city committee before it goes to the council for final action next month.

In the future new businesses opening in the industrial area would have to follow current city code.

Debbie Ackerman, a spokeswoman for the city's Public Works Department, said the future widening of Industrial Road is part of a project that will widen Martin L. King Boulevard and create an Industrial Road flyover near Charleston Boulevard and Interstate 15. The project would widen Martin L. King and Industrial Road to six lanes from Sahara to Wyoming avenues.

There is no timetable or cost estimate for the project, she said.