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Council nixes adults-only ban

Council defeats bylaw changes that would essentially ban adult businesses from city

City council defeated a proposed bylaw Monday night that would have made it impossible to set up strip clubs, swingers’ club or adult video stores.

Councillors Lorie Garritty, Carol Watamaniuk and James Burrows voted against the proposed rule changes, while Mayor Nolan Crouse, Coun. Roger Lemieux and Coun. Gareth Jones voted in favour.

Coun. Len Bracko missed Monday’s meeting, resulting in a tie vote, which defeats any motion.

Under the current land-use bylaw, adult entertainment is listed as a discretionary use in the city’s two industrial areas, Campbell Business Park and Riel Business Park.

The bylaw sets out a series of conditions for adult entertainment including setbacks from residential areas, schools, parks and arenas.

Crouse initiated the proposed bylaw change last November, essentially looking for an all-out ban on adults-only businesses. Administration provided council with the options to accomplish the ban, but recommended against such a course of action.

City manager Bill Holtby said the existing bylaw severely limits places where adult entertainment businesses are allowed. If the city adopted an outright ban they could face a legal challenge.

“It is very, very restrictive. It is almost hard to find a place in the community to open up one of these establishments,” Holtby told council. “We are not being restrictive to a point where saying it can’t be anywhere in the community and [changing] that is where the charter challenge would come in.”

Lemieux, one of the votes in favour of the ban, said he doesn’t want to see a large strip club or adult video store right on the edge of the city when Anthony Henday Drive is completed.

He said the issue of a legal challenge is something the city could deal with if it were to come up.

“I would rather cross that bridge if we ever needed to.”

Garritty, who opposed the ban, wanted to avoid the potential for legal challenges.

“If it were to have passed and be taken to a charter challenge the advice we were getting is we would lose that battle.”

Garritty said he is comfortable with restrictions that are already in place, which include notifying neighbours if an adults only business wants to set up shop.

Crouse said he may explore another avenue to achieve the bylaw changes after the election, but it is not a pressing issue.

“It is not something that is imminent. We don’t have any applications for people wanting to have a strip club or a swingers’ bar.”

Even though the restrictions on adult businesses are pretty stringent, fundamentally they don’t go far enough, Crouse said, adding under existing rules someone could build a strip club near Servus Credit Union Place.

“They don’t go far enough in my opinion,” he said. “I don’t think we should have a strip club next to Servus Place — period.”