Emergency Rule Bars New Adult Clubs for 45 Days

Responding quickly to two court decisions that found the city ordinance regulating adult-oriented businesses unconstitutional, the City Council on Tuesday approved an emergency moratorium barring new adult-oriented clubs from opening for the next 45 days.

City Atty. Jack L. White said that without the moratorium, Anaheim would have been powerless to stop additional bars and nightclubs from offering nude or topless dancing, as now occurs at the Sahara Theater and Sandraella’s, formerly known as the Wounded Knee Saloon.

“We have to get rid of these types of businesses in the city,” Councilman Irv Pickler said. “It especially bothers me that the courts are saying we are violating the First Amendment” by keeping adult businesses from opening.

The Sahara opened Friday as a cabaret offering nude dancing and Sandraella’s began offering topless dancing July 13 after each won separate court decisions.

The moratorium does not forbid either club from continuing to operate, but it does stop them from expanding their businesses.

Federal District Court Judge Richard A. Gadbois Jr. ruled July 12 that Sandraella’s could offer topless dancing because the city’s adult entertainment ordinance was unconstitutionally vague. It allowed the City Council to deny an adult business an operating permit if it found that the establishment would “adversely affect” a church, school or park.