Naked Cities No More

The right to dance nude in front of paying strangers may be protected by the Constitution--a 1st Amendment protection confirmed by the Supreme Court--but that hasn’t stopped communities across Southern California from trying to find creative ways to legislate topless bars and clubs out of existence.

For some cities the effort has often been a delicate legal dance, and some have had their hands slapped by judges for trampling the rights of club owners.

But now, emboldened by recent court decisions, more cities are aggressively seeking to restrict what goes on inside the dozens of darkened lounges that dot industrial districts across the Southland.

Los Angeles, which has regulated strip clubs through zoning for more than 20 years, is drafting an ordinance that would forbid nude dancers from accepting tips from patrons and prohibit physical contact between patrons and dancers.

Advocates of adult entertainment say the ordinance would close many of the city’s nude bars.

“There’s no doubt that they’re trying to put them out of business,” said Jeffrey Douglas, an attorney with the Free Speech Coalition, an adult entertainment trade organization. “These businesses exist highly regulated already. Further regulation is utterly unnecessary.”

But Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who proposed the ordinance, disagrees.

“Right now these businesses are not heavily regulated, that’s the problem,” she said. “But we have to move very cautiously in how we control them.”

Passing Legal Muster

Since 1977, Los Angeles has required that adult businesses be separated from one another by at least 1,000 feet, and operate at least 500 feet from a religious institution, school or residence.

The Spearmint Rhino club met these requirements, and in February the club gained permission from the Police Permit Review Panel to open in Van Nuys, foiling a two-year battle by residents.

State regulations prohibit bars featuring full nudity from serving alcohol, leading these businesses to operate as “nude juice bars.”

Like many such bars, Spearmint Rhino bills itself as a “gentlemen’s club,” with fully nude dancers, lap dancing and tipping by patrons. (Lap dancing is a private tete-a-tete in which the stripper sits in the lap of a patron, who pays extra for the one-on-one performance.)

The emerging Los Angeles ordinance, which officials expect to be completed by year’s end, is modeled after laws in two cities that so far have passed legal muster.

A Kent, Wash., law requires at least 10 feet between patrons and dancers, who may perform only on elevated platforms, and forbids dancers from accepting tips directly from patrons. A U.S. Court of Appeal upheld the ordinance last December.

That same month, a California appellate court upheld Newport Beach’s law requiring a minimum of six feet between dancers and patrons and prohibiting dancers from receiving tips. The court ruled that “the city could reasonably conclude that separating entertainers from customers reduces the opportunity for prostitution and drug dealing.”

Newport Beach officials had shut down the city’s only adult business, the Mermaid bar, when investigators discovered violations of the six-foot rule.

The club took the city to court and lost, then appealed. The state appellate court said the City Council had ample evidence of violations when it revoked the Mermaid’s business permit.

“A few other cities have asked us for our ordinance,” said Robin Clauson, an assistant city attorney in Newport Beach.

Los Angeles has about 45 licensed adult businesses, including book and video stores, according to a Police Commission spokesman. There is room for further regulation without threat of court appeal, said Deborah Sanchez, the deputy city attorney drafting the ordinance.

“This has been a long time coming,” Sanchez said. “There are things we can do to regulate this industry. The trend to do so started because a couple of [cities] did it and won in court. We’re starting to see a precedent in the courts that cities do have rights.”

Recently, Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson proposed that the city spend $175,000 for a study of adult businesses that could be used to justify even harsher zoning restrictions.

He and other council members had previously proposed new rules, including a system of conditional permits and a measure that would double the minimum distance adult businesses must be from schools, parks and residential neighborhoods. The city attorney has not yet issued an opinion on the constitutionality of such rules.

Higher Profile for Nude Bars

“The resurgence in regulating [adult businesses] is because for years they were out of sight, out of mind,” said H. Eric Schockman, a professor of urban politics at USC who helped write Los Angeles’ charter reform. “Now they’ve become too sightful and people are sensing they don’t comport with their neighborhoods.”

Nude bars are more visible than a few years ago because there are more of them, and they advertise regularly in publications and on billboards, Schockman said.

“It’s not that society is more puritanical, but this is the kind of thing you don’t want your daughter to see on the way to school,” he said.

Owners of more than a dozen nude juice bars refused comment, including the owner of the Van Nuys Spearmint Rhino and a spokesman at the company’s headquarters in the City of Industry.

The manager of one Los Angeles club, who asked that his name not be used, said the Police Department vice squad randomly patrols nude bars and keeps them clean and law-abiding.

“Those political types should be more concerned with crime on the streets,” he said. “These are adult men who come here, a lot of them are businessmen and family men.”

Nonetheless, a growing number of Southland cities are on the attack against what they consider to be a blight, with the potential to bring prostitution and drug problems to their neighborhoods.

Long Beach passed an ordinance earlier this year prohibiting new clubs from having nude dancing or physical contact between dancers and patrons. An existing adults-only club, however, was allowed to continue operating because it opened before the new law took effect.

Glendale’s only adult business, a bookstore, opened in the mid-1980s, but closed in the early ‘90s--and officials vow to do everything in their power to keep others out.

The roughly 40-square-mile city restricts adult businesses to the 12-block downtown commercial area and requires that they be at least 450 feet from churches, schools, parks and residential zones and 700 feet from other adult businesses.

“Almost no one can meet our zoning requirements,” said Glendale Mayor Ginger Bremberg. “The word has gotten around about how tough we are, so no one has even tried it lately.”

Tiny San Fernando also has succeeded through rigid zoning. “There’s maybe one or two locations in the whole city zoned for that type of business and we’re very unlikely to get one,” said Milan Garrison, associate city planner.

But in Arcadia, officials were forced to allow a strip club after being threatened with a lawsuit over the city’s 11-year-old law requiring a 750-foot distance from houses--effectively banning all adult businesses.

Officials granted a permit to open the club in a corner of Arcadia detached from the rest of the city, but not without restrictions.

“We’re not happy about it, but we were allowed to apply performance standards and that’s important,” said Donna Butler of the city’s planning department.

That means the club, which has not yet opened, must maintain a minimum distance of six feet between strippers and the audience and forbid patrons from placing tips on dancers’ costumes.

Court action forced Simi Valley to adopt an ordinance that allows adult-oriented businesses on an 85-acre strip of industrial land.

The City Council adopted the law after a federal court ruled in 1997 that the previous ordinance was so strict it violated the 1st Amendment rights of a man trying to open a club.

Simi Valley appealed the case in April and a decision is pending in federal court, said City Atty. David Hirsch.

Beverly Hills officials spent two years researching the issue before passing an ordinance in 1998.

The city, which previously had no laws regulating adult businesses, now requires any business that “offers its patrons products, merchandise, services or entertainment characterized by an emphasis upon specified sexual activities, or the exposure of specified anatomical areas” to obtain a business permit and locate within a commercial district.

A distance of 300 feet between adult entertainment businesses and parks, religious institutions, schools or other adult businesses also is required, and strip clubs ban direct tipping by patrons and require a minimum of six feet between erotic entertainers and patrons.

“These rules aren’t designed to deter crime, like the politicians say,” said Douglas, the Free Speech Coalition attorney, whose clients include nude dancers and club owners. “They’re clearly designed to hurt business.”

Community Involvement

Santa Clarita recently adopted its first ordinance to regulate adult entertainment. The city’s only adult business, a book and novelty store, will have to relocate.

“It’s a pretty strict ordinance,” said Santa Clarita Planning Manager Vince Bertoni. “We had a lot of involvement from the community. Council chambers were packed with people who wanted an even stricter ordinance.”

The strategy of some cities, however, runs counter to the trend of increased regulation.

In the wake of the Simi Valley suit, a councilwoman from neighboring Thousand Oaks--proud to be free of salacious adult entertainment--proposed drafting an ordinance to govern such businesses.

But the majority of her fellow council members shot her proposal down, contending that an ordinance on the books is as good as an invitation to anyone wanting to open an adult business.

“We don’t have one and there’s nothing being drafted or proposed,” said Nancy Schreiner, a Thousand Oaks assistant city attorney.

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Dealing With Adult Businesses

Here is how some Southern California cities have attempted to curb adult businesses, especially nude juice bars, which are strip clubs with full nudity where alcohol is banned under state law:

Arcadia--Requires a minimum distance of six feet between strippers and the audience, and forbids patrons to place tips on the dancers’ costumes.

Glendale--Limits adult businesses to the 12-block downtown commercial area, and requires that they be at least 450 feet from churches, schools, parks and residential zones and 700 feet from other adult businesses.

Los Angeles--Requires that businesses be at least 1,000 feet apart and 500 feet from religious institutions, schools or residences.

Newport Beach--Requires a minimum of six feet between dancers and patrons and forbids dancers to accept tips.

San Fernando--Requires that adult businesses operate at least 1,000 feet from one another, 500 feet from residences and 1,000 feet from schools, churches or parks.

Santa Clarita--Requires 1,000 feet between adult businesses and schools, parks or religious institutions.

Simi Valley--Limits businesses to an industrial strip, requires that they be 500 feet apart and forbids contact between dancers and patrons.

Source: City officials