Strip Club Wins Round Over Zoning Ordinance
By: Carlos Martinez
From AVN
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.
A strip club has won a court battle to stay in business when a Federal judge issued a preliminary injunction to stop Minneapolis from shutting down the club because it allegedly violated a zoning ordinance.
Owners of the Double Deuce had sought to overturn a 2002 zoning ordinance that aimed to shut down the city’s few remaining strip clubs, according to City Pages newspaper.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael Davis issued the injunction in order to determine whether the ordinance was constitutional, saying that the club had raised “serious doubt as to whether the 2002 ordinance will pass constitutional muster.â€
The ordinance barred adult entertainment establishments due to the “adverse secondary effects†they posed to surrounding neighborhoods. But Randall Tigue, an attorney representing the club, says such arguments had worked in the past, but no longer given that such negative secondary effects have not been proven to exist.
“The notion that adult entertainment caused crime is a lie,†he said.
“The secondary effects are just myths.â€
Urban Planner R. Bruce McLaughlin, said the club averaged far fewer police calls over a three-year period than two local bars, a nearby liquor store and even one area residence. He also found no apparent effect on the value of property in the community due to the club’s operation.
Judge Davis said in his ruling that the city failed to provide any facts to support its arguments against McLaughlin’s report.