ANAHEIM : City Delays Opening of Nude Dance Club

The City Council passed an emergency measure this week that temporarily blocked the scheduled opening of a nude dancing club.

The council voted 4 to 0 in closed session Tuesday to enact a 45-day moratorium on the opening of adult-oriented businesses in industrial zones.

Councilman Frank Feldhaus was absent.

The council’s action postpones the opening of the Flamingo Theater, which had been scheduled to open last Monday at 618 East Ball Road. The theater will feature topless and nude female dancing, but will not sell alcoholic beverages, records show.

The council will consider amending a 1993 ordinance regulating adult-oriented businesses. After a study is completed, the council may decide to further limit where adult-oriented businesses can operate in the city.

A business owner urged the council to prevent the nude dancing club from opening. The meeting was closed because it dealt with a legal issue.

“This is a horrible use,” said William Dooley, head of a trailer company nearby the proposed club. “It’s a blight. Go to Hollywood and look at that area. That’s the road we are going down.”

Council members say they are sympathetic to community complaints about nude-dancing businesses, but have to adhere to federal laws.

A federal court struck down a former city ordinance in 1993 that banned nude dancing at a public establishment if the city believed such entertainment detrimental to the surrounding neighborhood. The court ruled that ordinance was “constitutionally vague.”