ANAHEIM : Opening of Topless Bar Investigated

City officials are investigating whether a topless bar near Anaheim Stadium opened illegally or whether it beat the deadline imposed by the city’s recently enacted adult entertainment ordinance.

Some officials contend that “Fritz That’s Too,” which features topless female dancers, opened after July 21, the latest it could have opened legally.

They say the business--on Katella Avenue about half a mile west of the stadium--was still “Cactus Jack’s,” a nightclub, on that date. They say Fritz should be closed because it violates the city’s ordinance against new adult businesses in the stadium area.

“We believe the club only opened recently,” code enforcement manager John Poole said. His department first learned the club had gone topless in November, several months after the owners say it opened. “We may not be the best department at checking these things out, but I find it hard to believe it operated that long and we didn’t know about it.”

Don Yourstone, a senior code enforcement officer, said he and the Police Department make frequent spot inspections of bars “and we saw no evidence of topless dancing until around November.”

The club’s owners did not return several calls for comment Tuesday.

City Atty. Jack L. White said his office is investigating when the club started featuring topless dancing and he will make a determination soon on whether to order it closed.

“If they were open, they’ll get to stay open for almost two more years” under the new adult business ordinance, White said. “If not, they’ll have two options--move to another location or cover up the girls.”

Fritz is now one of at least three topless or nude dance halls to open in the city after it had gone at least 15 years without one.

The city’s old adult entertainment ordinance had allowed the City Council to deny a permit to a topless or a nude dance hall if it found the business to be “detrimental to the peace, health, safety and general welfare” of the surrounding neighborhood or would “adversely affect” a church, school or park. It was the early 1970s when the council last approved such a business and all were gone by the end of that decade.

But in early July, a federal judge struck down the ordinance as “too vague” and said it violated a U.S. Supreme Court ruling protecting nude dancing as a form of expression protected by the First Amendment. The federal judge said that under that ruling, Anaheim could regulate such businesses, but could not ban them entirely.

By July 21, a topless bar and also a nude dance hall opened in the city. The council then placed a temporary ban on any new adult businesses pending adoption of a new ordinance.

On Sept. 28, the council adopted an ordinance that allows adult businesses in some areas of the city but specifically bans them near the stadium. The ordinance does allow adult businesses operating before July 21 to remain in their location until mid-1995.