Voters will have the final say in September on whether lap dances should be banned in Scottsdale, after the City Council voted Tuesday to put the issue on the ballot.
Mike Phillips, media relations manager for the city, said there has been a lot of debate in the community about the existence of strip clubs.
"When the Jenna Jameson group announced they were purchasing Babes [Cabaret], it became a much more high-profile issue," Phillips said.
In December, the City Council revised Scottsdale's sexually-oriented business ordinance. The revised law would require entertainers to dance four feet away from customers and would ban nudity.
Warren Colazzo, manager of Skin Cabaret in Scottsdale, said such laws would be devastating to his business.
"Our club seats about 120 people, but if an entertainer has to be four feet away from a customer when she's dancing, that would take our occupancy down to probably about 40 people, which is a joke," he said.
Colazzo said the clubs wanted to negotiate to revise the ban, but the City Council members were unwilling.
"The advocates for the club, as is their legal right, mounted a petition drive to place the changes on the ballot, and they were successful in doing so," Phillips said. This means Scottsdale citizens will have a final say on strip clubs' fates.
The clubs submitted 8,000 signatures, and the city determined that the group had about 5,000 valid signatures. They only needed about 3,600, Phillips said.
Colazzo said he was surprised how many people were not patrons of the club, but recognized that the clubs have been there for 30 years and seemed to have obeyed the law.
"The oldest couple that signed were about 85 years old and they were just upset about the bad government," he said.
Colazzo said he has worked in the business for 25 years in several different states where club owners could meet with police and with the neighbors and get things worked out.
"I think it's unfortunate the City Council didn't sit down and talk to us, like we do with the police department," Colazzo said. "We do a lot to make sure the community is happy."
Colazzo said these clubs are harmless and legal if run the proper way.
"These clubs [Skin and Babes] have been in business for 30 years," he said. We have less calls [to police] than most Circle Ks, and less calls than several other clubs in Scottsdale."
City Council members did not respond to e-mails requesting calls for comment.
Reach the reporter at laura.graham@asu.edu.
