The arm wrestle between the adult entertainment industry and Columbus City Council continued last month with the passage of a third ordinance in three years restraining strip club locations.

Under the enacted law, new adult entertainment businesses are herded into manufacturing zones and must be at least 250 feet away from any residence, church, school and other strip clubs or adult stores.

The law, passed on April 19, leaves approximately two percent of Columbus’ land open to new adult entertainment businesses, just enough space for the restrictions to remain constitutional, according to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio.

“The new law doesn’t violate the First Amendment right to free speech,” said Councilman Michael C. Mentel, the council’s leader in the fight with adult entertainment.

“We just want to keep these businesses away from where families go to shop and dine,” Mentel said.

But many of Columbus’ 50 to 70 established strip clubs and adult stores are near where families shop and dine, which is both a blessing and a curse for these businesses.

More money and notoriety come with high-traffic locations. But under the new law, any adult businesses temporarily closed that try to re-open will be considered a new club and have to relocate.

“If (adult entertainment businesses) had to come back to the city for permits, the Department of Development would not allow them to open again,” said Dan Trevas, spokesman for Columbus City Council. “It was the intention of council to get them to shut down or move if they’re not in compliance.”

However, the city is not targeting established adult entertainment businesses, Mentel said. The Columbus Division of Police will continue to survey and investigate strips clubs with pre-ordinance enforcement levels.

“There will not be selective enforcement,” Mentel said. “But between code enforcement and the Division of Police, objections can be made, and we will certainly follow up on those objections.”

The back-and-forth between city council and the adult entertainment industry began when strip clubs capitalized on loopholes in the old law, Trevas said. Clubs would acquire permits from the city by opening as restaurants, but soon thereafter would convert into a strip club. 

“The city had an ordinance against opening in residential neighborhoods, but the clubs would get permits to open as something else,” Trevas said. “They were game-playing.”

Residents’ complaints came in abundance, and council could do little under the old law to help.

“Citizens would call and complain about what was going on in their neighborhoods,” Mentel said. “And it is (city council’s) goal to try and help serve and better the community, so we knew something needed to be done.”

In response, council passed a second ordinance restricting adult businesses to areas at least a half-mile away from any home, church or school, Trevas said. This left only .008 percent of Columbus’ land available for new strip clubs and adult stores to build.

Four adult organizations – Dockside Dolls, Sirens, The Lion’s Den and Kahoots – sued the city, citing a violation of their right to free speech.

The federal district court agreed with the industry, saying less than one percent of land was too small, as precedent was already set at two to five percent. Accordingly, the old law went back into effect, and council was forced to re-evaluate and write a new law, Trevas said.

To buy time, council passed a moratorium on new strip clubs in January 2002 and extended it through April 2003 to stop adult businesses from taking advantage of the old law, while a new law was written.

Definitions were tightened in the third ordinance to prevent loopholes and keep clubs from building in residential and commercial zones.

“Now clubs can’t open as restaurants,” Trevas said. “And the minute they start acting like a strip club, they’re in violation of the law.”

Mentel agreed, warning adult businesses that the city is alert and ready to act.

“They should be very careful what they do and avoid playing cute with this law,” Mentel said. “If they do, they’re ultimately the ones who will get stung.”

There is still a possibility of further legal action, although both the city attorney’s office and city council believe they have an airtight case.

“I think the new law is constitutional,” said Columbus City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr. “No suits have been filed yet at this time, but that’s not to say there won’t be any in the future.”

Michael Murray, an attorney for Dockside Dolls declined to comment, but said, “I don’t think I should comment on it because we might not be done with litigation with the city.”