Draft plans for a strip club on West Carson Street have neighborhood residents fuming that its owners may be jumping the gun on building something that could set back the area's image.

The drafts, provided to the Post-Gazette, show plans to put a bar, private lap dance rooms, and showers into a building at 1635 W. Carson St., formerly a medical office and next-door neighbor to a club for recovering addicts.

"This is exactly what the community had been concerned with all along," said city Councilwoman Theresa Smith, who represents the area, as she reviewed the drawings, suggesting they were evidence of construction within the building without a permit and during court appeals.

"We've been doing well, and striving to get the West End communities up to the potential they can be," said Ginny Kropf, vice president of the Sheraden Community Council. "This can only bring us down."

Would-be adult entertainment operator Patrick Risha Jr., of Marquise Investments, declined Thursday to meet with the Post-Gazette to discuss the drafts, and could not be reached for comment Friday. The company's lawyer could not be reached.

The area is zoned industrial, and adult entertainment is allowed there unless nixed by the city planning commission and City Council. Marquise started seeking approval in June 2008, and the commission voted against it in November of that year.

The Planning Department never sent the matter to council, though, so no hearing or vote were held there, which means the adult entertainment application was deemed denied. Marquise appealed, and Allegheny County Common Pleas Court Judge Joseph James in March gave city lawyers a second chance to hold a hearing, but that never happened.

Councilman Doug Shields, who was then council president, said the Law Department should have made sure that council held its hearing after Judge James gave the city a second chance.

"We could've imposed conditions" on the club, Mr. Shields said, perhaps requiring that its owners pay for a new traffic light. "We missed that opportunity."

New city Solicitor Dan Regan would not comment on the city's failure to hold a council hearing, noting that litigation continues.

Judge James ruled in November that no one had proved that the club would be detrimental to public health, safety and welfare, and granted the owners approval to provide adult entertainment. Mr. Regan said the city's appeal of that order will focus on the impact the club would have on traffic and recovering addicts.

Mr. Risha told the planning commission that he would serve no alcohol, just free juices and sodas at the club, but didn't rule out seeking a liquor license later. Some of the draft drawings, though, show a "bar" or "drink stand" near the front door.

The clientele of the Onala Club, next door to the proposed strip club, is entirely made up of recovering addicts. Some 1,600 people per week come for meetings, cheap food, free legal and financial advice, or just to hang out in a drug-and-alcohol-free environment, said Joe Panzino, Onala's executive director.

Adult entertainment attracts drinking and drugs, he said.

"I can name you half a dozen people right now who, within [the strip club's] first month, will be lapsed" into addiction, he said. "The environment of recovery would be totally compromised."

Onala owns its building, and would have a hard time selling and finding another suitable spot if its neighbor proved incompatible, he said.

While Mr. Risha has won court fights to launch his business, he has run into personal legal trouble.

On Oct. 3, he was arrested on a West Mifflin golf course when officers saw him firing a gun in two directions, according to a police report. He was charged with two counts of recklessly endangering another person -- both misdemeanors -- plus the summary offense of public drunkenness and for violating West Mifflin's ban on firing a gun. The police report indicates that suspected marijuana and a pipe were found in a companion's purse.

Mr. Risha's formal arraignment is set for March 4.

It's unclear whether Marquise Investments will try to get a building permit to revamp its West Carson Street building's interior while the city's appeal of Judge James' order is pending. But the would-be strip club has been the scene of recent activity that got building inspectors' nod, but made area residents anxious.

On Jan. 14, the building's owner, an Elizabeth firm named Sonnynick Inc., got a permit to repair water damage. The permit bars any progress toward an adult entertainment facility.

Residents contacted the Bureau of Building Inspection alleging nighttime construction, the presence of stacks of fresh drywall and ductwork on the property, and an unpermitted Dumpster. Acting Chief of Building Inspection John Jennings took the complaints seriously enough to ask for a personal tour of the building.

"I went through the entire building," Chief Jennings said. A contractor is "only in there doing repairs for water damage caused by a burst pipe."

He said he saw that interior walls between three former medical examining rooms were taken out and drywall was replaced, but viewed that as consistent with fixing water damage.

The removed walls and draft drawings, though, worry Ms. Smith. She said it "appears that they are preparing it for what they want it to be. The fact that they have these plans, and they have everything laid out ... merits further investigation."

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