Strip club wants not one, but four zoning permits

The Shade-based company that has been trying to open an adult-entertainment club featuring nude dancers at a site on Stimson Avenue has now asked a judge to order the Athens Board of Zoning Appeals to issue the company multiple zoning permits for the project.

The attorney for Three Wide Entertainment and its owner Christopher Stotts have asked Athens County Common Pleas Judge L. Alan Goldsberry to order four separate permits to be issued, "and/or" to cite the city for contempt of court, for having failed to issue them already.

On top of this, attorney Scott R. Mergenthaler argues, Goldsberry should hit the city with money sanctions for its failure to cooperate, and require the city to pay Three Wide's court costs and attorney fees.

Goldsberry is the local judge who put the last nail into the coffin of the city's efforts to deny Three Wide its permits for the strip club, which is planned for a storefront on Stimson that once housed the New-to-You second-hand store.

Last November, Goldsberry ruled against the city in its three-year running legal battle with Three Wide. Though the city could have continued to appeal the case, Law Director Patrick Lang announced that it would not do so.

Three Wide had initially submitted four different permit applications in 2008, and was turned down by the zoning board.

The company appealed to the Common Pleas Court, and in June 2010, Judge Michael Ward ruled that the board had overstepped its authority in denying the permits, by taking into consideration legally extraneous issues such as the morality of a strip club. Ward did not overturn the board's ruling, but sent the case back for another review.

At a meeting in June 2011, the board again denied the strip club a permit. Three Wide then filed an administrative appeal of that zoning board decision, and last November, Goldsberry once again ruled in Three Wide's favor, concluding that the board's denial of a permit for the club was illegal.

By this time, Stotts and property owner Demetrios Prokos had also filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Columbus, alleging that their free-speech rights are being quashed. That suit is still pending, and has the potential to mean big money damages for the city if Stotts and Prokos win.

In a memorandum in support of Mergenthaler's request for a court order and sanctions, the attorney relates that after Goldsberry ruled in November, Three Wide wrote to the city demanding its permits. Code Director John Paszke then wrote to Prokos, telling him that a permit would be issued once certain legal conditions were met.

In January, Mergenthaler wrote to the city to complain that the notification had been sent to Prokos, not to Three Wide, which was the actual permit applicant. (Paszke later apologized for this.)

Paszke continued to state in correspondence, however, that the city would issue one permit only. This is based on Paszke's interpretation of Goldsberry's November legal decision, which Paszke believes found only one use namely "nightclub" to be legal in the zone where the site is located.

The code director also reiterated that a permit would be issued only on the conditions that the company verifies it has adequate parking for the strip club, and submits drawings to show the business will comply with state building codes.

Mergenthaler maintains, however, that because Goldsberry's ruling found the zoning board acted illegally in denying all Three Wide's permit applications, the city should now be required to issue all four of the permits the company has asked for. (The permit applications were essentially the same, but described the proposed use of the building in different ways, such as "dancing and entertainment" or "adult cabaret.")

According to Mergenthaler's argument, Goldsberry's ruling resolved the issue of whether the strip club meets code, and affirmed that it does. Therefore, the attorney contends, "the city's failure to grant all four applications without further reservations is a contempt of this court's clear mandate," and should be punished as such.