Council Votes to Set Limits for Nude Dance Clubs

Realizing that they cannot ban nude dance clubs in their community, members of the City Council voted Monday night to prohibit one-on-one performances and establish rules that will ensure a healthy distance between nude performers and patrons.

Looking to a Supreme Court case for support, the council took the first step toward adopting rules to define just what it considers a true theater stage, and regulating just how close patrons can sit to that stage.

The new rules, set to take effect next week, are meant to prevent close-contact “lap dancing” and “table dancing,” which city officials say promote crime and prostitution.

The City Council also voted to require that waiters or waitresses be clothed and to forbid them from exposing themselves to patrons.

“The intent is to ensure that nude entertainers perform in a bona fide theatrical environment,” City Atty. John Torrance said, adding that while the Supreme Court has ruled that nude dancing does constitute free expression, nudity is a “marginal expression” that can be regulated.

The new rules come just as developer Philip Young has plans before the city to build an 11,000-square-foot nightclub in a neighborhood mall on the west end of Los Angeles Avenue, but Torrance said the ordinance was not aimed at Young’s proposal.

“This does not ignore the fact that the ordinance may affect the proposal now working its way through the planning process, but it is not aimed at any particular proposal. It is aimed at the secondary effects of this type of activity.”

Young has already sued the city, alleging that it violated his rights in 1993 when it blocked his plans to build a nude dance club, which was to be called Dancing Bear.

That lawsuit is on hold while Young and his lawyer, Roger Diamond, await the outcome of his latest application.

The latest version of his plans call for a stage for nude dancing, a juice bar, an adjacent adult bookstore, an X-rated boutique and a video shop. Diamond said the new rules, which require the stage to be a minimum 600 square feet and at least 30 inches high, will likely make things more difficult for his client.

“But whatever requirements they put in, we’ll do,” Diamond said.

If the rules prove to be prohibitively expensive or impossible to meet, Diamond said that will only bolster his client’s suit against the city. Diamond said it was clear that the city approved the rules with his client’s theater in mind.

Mayor Greg Stratton said the city was not targeting Young’s project.

“I have no idea what his design is,” Stratton said. “I don’t know if [the ordinance] helps or hurts him.”

Stratton said the rules simply define what a true theater is.

“The best I can tell--and I’ve been to a lot of theaters and a of lot plays--is there isn’t lap dancing going on in real theaters. I haven’t seen a lot of lap dances at the Dorothy Chandler or any other theater.”

About two dozen angry residents from the group Simi Citizens R Against Pornography (SCRAP) came to the meeting to voice their opposition to Young’s plan and to support the ordinance.

“I came here before to ask you to find a way to stop this,” said Roger Willis, pastor of Valley Bible Community Church. “It looks like you’re trying to go all the way. We’ll be behind you. If the city has to spend a few bucks to go to court, let’s do it. That’s a good use of our money.”

And the group--which mustered 250 protesters for a demonstration against the proposed club in August--also wants the city to charge the business a so-called “crime impact fee” to offset the cost of fighting any crime that might result from its operations.