Judge Strips City of Law Barring Nude Dance Clubs

The city of Simi Valley unwillingly lurched a step closer to the opening of a nude dance club on Monday, when a federal judge tentatively struck down a local ordinance limiting where cabarets can locate.

The city plans to appeal the decision by U.S. District Judge William J. Rea in the years-long case of a local businessman seeking to open the Mirages Cabaret Theater in west Simi Valley.

Rea ruled on the matter after a jury deadlocked on whether the city ordinance violated the civil rights of Simi Valley businessman and resident Phil Young.

“I think it stinks,” City Councilwoman Barbara Williamson said of the decision. “Obviously, the city will appeal this ruling. We do not welcome this business in our community. They do have a constitutional right to be here, but I don’t think we have to bend over backwards to help them find a place and work through the [permitting] process.”

Although Young was thrilled with the ruling, he said the cabaret is still in the distant future. The site planned for the club--at the intersection of Los Angeles Avenue and Sinaloa Road--has been snatched up by a ballroom dancing studio.

His Santa Monica-based lawyer, Roger Diamond, hailed the ruling as a 1st Amendment victory.

“The law requires a city to allow [nude dance clubs] somewhere,” he said. “A lot of people in Simi Valley don’t want it anywhere, but they have to be told the facts of life: They cannot ban it. They ought to work with Mr. Young instead.”

Concerned that smut would take over their sleepy, safe bedroom community, many Simi Valley residents protested the plans for the club. Residents circulated a petition and held a candlelight vigil. They formed a group called Simi Citizens R Against Pornography to condemn what they called a “porn mall.”

Young believes that a “silent majority” of the city’s 103,000 residents favor the club but are afraid to speak up, fearing vilification.

As originally proposed, Young’s 11,000-square-foot, two-story complex would have included a juice bar, nude dancing, an adult bookstore, a boutique and a video store. Young later scaled down those plans.

Rea’s ruling--which will be finalized within a few days--strikes down a city ordinance hurriedly passed in 1994 that prohibits nude dance clubs from operating within 1,000 feet of a school or religious facility, or within 500 feet of a business catering to youth.

The council’s action followed an initial attempt by Young to open a nude dance club called the Dancing Bear.

On Young’s second attempt, in June 1995, he chose a location that was suitably far from church groups for his Mirages Cabaret.

About the same time as the club’s special use permit was deemed complete that December, the religious Joshua Institute applied for--and received--an over-the-counter permit to open a Bible study center close to the club site. The opening of the Joshua Institute prevented the club from opening.

Nude and topless dancing are protected forms of free expression that cities have the right to regulate--but not ban--and Rea found the Simi Valley ordinance unconstitutional on two counts.

In a strongly worded eight-page decision, Rea said that religious organizations and schools should not have “de facto veto power” over nude clubs up to the last days of the permitting process. Rea acknowledges there is no higher court precedent that specifically addresses ordinances that allow schools and churches to essentially knock out adult entertainment establishments.

Nonetheless, he wrote, “the ordinance, as it currently exists and is currently applied, runs afoul of the First Amendment.”

Secondly, Rea said the ordinance is so narrowly crafted that it only allows such cabarets to exist in three locations in Simi Valley, although he said there is no “constitutional minimum” number of sites. City Atty. John Torrance contends there are between 35 and 120 potential sites for nude dance clubs within those three areas.

Those two factors, Rea wrote, create an unconstitutional “chilling effect” on people seeking to open adult businesses.

If the tentative ruling is finalized as is, Torrance said the city will likely appeal the decision to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The case could potentially reach the U.S. Supreme Court if the city appeals, said plaintiff’s attorney Diamond.

“Naturally, we’re disappointed,” Torrance said. “We believe that the ordinance is valid. The ordinance was very carefully drafted four years ago, taking into consideration all the existing case law and the proper exercise of the city’s power to protect the community from adverse secondary effects these kinds of businesses create,” including increased crime and prostitution.

But Young said he felt vindicated by the favorable ruling, which caps his nearly five-year battle to bring a little bump-and-grind to the suburbs.

“A lot of people [in Simi Valley] have been to these clubs, but they don’t like to talk about it,” he said. “If you open it, everybody is going to attend.”