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Adult business ordinance adopted
By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN, Times Staff Writer
DADE CITY -- Laws related to adult clubs in Pasco changed Tuesday night without much of a show. County commissioners voted unanimously to push all future strip clubs, lingerie shops and other adult businesses to designated industrial zones. The law, approved during a hearing at the Historic County Courthouse, should stop the spread of XXX dance clubs on U.S. 19. The existing 25 clubs, shops and video stores get to remain where they are. The large crowd that turned out during the first hearing on the ordinance in December did not materialize Tuesday night. Instead, the main complaint was lobbed by attorney Jerry Figurski. His concern centered on language in the final version of the bill that said all existing businesses must register this spring to show they were in business on Dec. 17. An earlier version of the ordinance said "on or before" that date. Figurski said he has a client that had to close down his exotic dance club a few years ago after the state condemned part of his property in order to expand State Road 54. But the commission dismissed the complaint and agreed with its attorney, Bob Sumner, and its consultant, attorney Rick Fee. "One parameter we set, that they be in business Dec. 17," Sumner said. "If you say on or before, someone could say we had an adult business there eight years ago." Attorneys also eliminated a part of the earlier ordinance that would have forbid adult businesses from holding private rooms for use by the public, other than restrooms, that are closed off by doors or curtains. Fee said after the meeting that he thought it was safest for the county to stick strictly with zoning requirements and not get involved with regulating what goes on inside the clubs. The county got into trouble for doing just that more than a year ago when two ordinances took effect. The ordinances zoned clubs into industrial areas and tried to prohibit lap dances and require extensive record keeping. A federal judge in Tampa suspended the ordinance in December 2001, saying the combined effect of the ordinances was unconstitutional and an attempt to put the clubs out of business. Last year the commission agreed to drop the expensive litigation and the regulatory ordinance. Instead, this ordinance relates only to zoning. Future clubs will have to set up shop in one of five industrial zones in Hudson off New York Avenue east of U.S. 19, Odessa, and north and south of Dade City. In other business Tuesday night, commissioners voted to approve amendments to the county's tree ordinance. Instead of calling for 16 trees an acre, the county will consider lot sizes in determining the number required for a given site. However, the commission agreed to review the amendments again in the next few weeks for additional changes. Also, the commission passed an ordinance that will add $3 to traffic citations, not including parking tickets. The money will pay for high school driver's education. The law can come about after a new state law named for 14-year-old Dori Slosberg, the daughter of a Boca Rotan legislator. She was killed several years ago by a young driver.
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