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County tries new tack on adult clubs
By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN, Times Staff Writer With Pasco County's adult business ordinances in shambles, don't ask your local county commissioners what the future holds. Ask Luke Lirot. He's the attorney for Calendar Girls, Lollipops, The Players Club and 42nd Street Video. Those are the adult clubs the county sought to put out of business, according to a federal judge. Now the future looks bright for those businesses. Not so for the county's attempt to regulate them. "We're just in a weakened position," Commissioner Steve Simon said Tuesday night. "We can't get everything we want." Commissioners thought they had approved airtight ordinances a few years ago, based on advice from county staffers. But just a couple of months after the laws took effect, a federal judge shot them down, saying they were overly restrictive. At their meeting Tuesday night, county commissioners threw in the towel. They voted 4-0, with Commission Pat Mulieri absent, to hire consultants to rework a zoning ordinance that tried to place adult businesses in industrial districts. Cowed by their defeat, they agreed to ask Lirot what he wants not only for his clients but also what could avoid a future court challenge. "Let's get an offer," Commissioner Peter Altman said. "Let's find out." So the Times asked Lirot. Reached Wednesday in Las Vegas at a convention for nightclubs and bars, Lirot said he wants his clients to be left alone. "I don't see why they should be treated differently than people at Arthur Murray's," Lirot said, referring to the national chain of dance studios. His clients should be "grandfathered" or exempted from any new zoning ordinance, he said. "We want the county to recognize property rights and leave us where we are," Lirot said. The county also had sought to control what happens behind closed doors with a regulating ordinance that forbade contact between clients and employees. The commission on Tuesday agreed to back off that ordinance. The county already has laws on the books about prostitution, excessive noise or drug dealing that would address any of the problems the commissioners blame on the businesses, Lirot said, echoing some of the commissioners Tuesday night. If the county had grandfathered his clients to begin with, the suits might never have been filed, he said, and the county might have succeeded in limiting future businesses to industrial zones. They still might, Lirot said. He predicts that the county would not be challenged if it limits only future businesses to industrial areas. That's different, he said, than forcing an existing club to move to an area that might put it out of business. The county's zoning law tried to push adult businesses into industrial areas. But some commissioners and even County Attorney Bob Sumner didn't realize that the businesses would not be allowed to serve alcohol in the industrial areas. The question still remains on what to do with future adult businesses. Simon and Altman both suggest limiting them to industrial areas but lifting the alcohol ban. Another possibility is allowing the businesses to locate in certain commercial districts but with specified distances from schools, churches and day care centers. Commissioners also must decide what to do about a host of new adult businesses that have cropped up since the court decision. Sin-Na-Bar on U.S. 19 in Holiday south of Trouble Creek Road opened in the former Irish Cottage a few weeks ago as "A Men's Night Club," with female dancers in panties and pasties. Residents in nearby Gardens at Beacon Square are not happy about it. "You have the tendency to get more sex deviants in the area that wouldn't be there," said John Black, 73. However, Harry and Joyce Holley who live down the street from Sin-Na-Bar say it's a little quieter than the ruckus from the Irish pub. Though they aren't thrilled with the men's club, they said they haven't had problems with it so far. "It's been a lot more peaceful with them in there than the Irish Cottage," Mrs. Holley said. -- Saundra Amrhein covers Pasco County government. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6244, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6244. Her e-mail address is amrhein@sptimes.com.
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