Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

County Commission approves adult overlay district

After several delays and much controversy, the Clark County Commission has approved an adult overlay district that covers a broad area around Industrial Road, where most of the county's porn book stores and strip joints already operate.

Clark County Commissioner Myrna Williams voted against the ordinance she had called for more than a year ago She said what came out of numerous compromises was a perversion of her desire to limit the number of adult businesses near residential neighborhoods.

The other five commissioners who were present at Wednesday's zoning meeting approved the ordinance. None of the commissioners voting for the measure gave it a ringing endorsement. Commissioner Bruce Woodbury was absent.

Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates called it "the lesser of two evils," with the other being no action.

Commission Chairwoman Mary Kincaid-Chauncey said the measure "had pluses and minuses."

The big plus is that it helps keeps potential new adult businesses from encroaching into neighborhoods, officials said. The big minus is the de facto county endorsement of an X-rated district near the Strip.

Commissioner Rory Reid said the ordinance will prevent new adult businesses in his district, on Boulder Highway and along Interstate 215. He said he didn't think the board could do much better than it did.

No one from the adult entertainment industry showed up to complain, and that prompted Kincaid-Chauncey to say she hoped that meant the county won't be sued over the ordinance.

The only member of the public to address the commission about the matter was Allen Lichtenstein, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, who as a private attorney represents some of the adult businesses affected by the action.

Lichtenstein had nothing to say about the constitutionality of the measure, but rather pointed to the map that accompanied the ordinance incorrectly showed Valley View Boulevard as the Southwest boundary instead of Arville Street.

Kincaid-Chauncey said the legal description in the ordinance was what counted.

The boundaries of the adult overlay district according to the ordinance are:

The moratorium on adult businesses continues until May 23, when the new ordinance goes into effect.

"After a year of a moratorium that violated people's First Amendment rights, after all of the politicking and posturing, after all of the talk of a whole new system, we are pretty much back to where we started," Lichtenstein said outside the meeting. "Clearly, this was a tremendous waste of time."

In February the city of North Las Vegas vowed to fight the proposal to create the special adult-entertainment business districts in Clark County, when one of the four proposed zones was slated for the area near the intersection of the Las Vegas Beltway and Interstate 15 -- a gateway to North Las Vegas.

That idea was scrapped as compromises were reached.

"In my 8 1/2 years here, this is the most ironic thing I've ever done," Williams said before voting against the measure she advocated. Because the ordinance creates a clustering of adult-oriented businesses, "I have to vote no on this."

After the vote, she asked the district attorney to look into whether the number of new adult businesses inside the adult overlay district could be limited without violating constitutionality issues.

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