City council considers new strip club legislation
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Theresa Kail-Smith
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Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith introduced legislation this week that would limit new strip clubs to industrial zones, require owners of adult businesses to obtain annual licenses and prohibit patrons from tucking money in dancers' garters or G-strings.
Money would have to be placed in tip jars instead.
Also under the legislation, Ms. Kail-Smith said, "dark rooms" in the clubs would become a thing of the past because of new lighting requirements. Dancers in a state of undress would have to maintain a minimum 6-foot distance from customers. Even after they've finished dancing and put on their clothes, performers wouldn't be able to mingle with patrons for at least an hour, a rule "intended to control illicit sexual contact and reduce the incidents of prostitution occurring in the establishments."
Ms. Kail-Smith said the new laws are designed to better regulate what appears to be a growing industry here.
Strip clubs in Chateau and the West End are poised to open. Blush, Downtown, hopes to expand. Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak cited a proposal to reopen the Butta Bing strip club in Overbrook.
Warner Mariani, an attorney for the West End and Chateau clubs, said he had not yet had an opportunity to review the legislation. Louis Caputo, an attorney for Blush, said the legislation was a "serious departure" from already stringent regulations for adult businesses.
"It's something we intend to fight," Mr. Caputo said, calling Blush a "very good neighbor."
One of Ms. Kail-Smith's bills would make strip clubs, adult bookstores and other adult businesses a use by right in certain industrial zones, a change she says is necessary to protect the city against discrimination claims from would-be owners.
Currently, adult businesses are not a use by right anywhere in the city. Rather, the businesses require special permission to operate in any neighborhood or zoning district, an arrangement Ms. Kail-Smith said might have helped to ax many proposed establishments over the years but more recently hurt the city's fight against the Chateau and West End clubs.
Ms. Kail-Smith said setting aside certain parts of the city for adult businesses "is absolutely necessary to eliminate any perception of arbitrary decision-making by public officials based upon vague standards." City Solicitor Daniel Regan said he supported the zoning change and believed that it would offer legal protection to the city.
Neither the West End club, proposed by Marquise Investment Inc., nor the Hustler Club in Chateau has opened yet.
First Published June 10, 2011 12:00 am
