Published August 8, 2002, in Issue #27 of the Hook

BY COURTENEY STUART

Though an adult video and toy store opened just three weeks ago in the former Reines Jewelers space on Angus Road, new adult entertainment businesses looking to horn in on the Charlottesville area may not have it so easy.

The City of Charlottesville is considering a new ordinance that would place restrictions on adult-oriented businesses, according to Jim Herndon, a planner in the City's office of neighborhood development services.

Herndon says that right now the City could not prevent a topless club from opening, even one smack in the middle of the Downtown Mall. It would simply be subject to the same rules and regulations as any business that serves alcohol.

And that scares Tyler Sewell, director of the Downtown Property Owners' Council.

"We would be opposed," Sewell says. "We would not want a sex district, and that's what we fear it would lead to. It's not family entertainment."

The new zoning ordinance under consideration by the City would permit adult entertainment businesses, Herndon says, but would regulate them virtually guaranteeing that Charlottesville could never give Amsterdam a run for its money.

"Consider it a pre-emptive strike," Herndon says of the ordinance, adding that he is unaware of any plans to launch such a business.

Does that mean we could end up with a "red light district"?

No, says Deputy City Attorney Lisa Kelley. The proposed ordinance would not restrict adult businesses to a specific area, but it might keep them at least 1,000 feet from each other-- not to mention 1,000 feet from schools.

In addition to regulating topless bars, Kelley says, "adult model studios," better known as peep shows, as well as adult movie theaters and adult book/video stores, would be regulated.

But it's not all bad news for those who'd like to see more adult entertainment locally.

When and if the new "adult use" ordinance passes in the City, adult entertainment businesses will still have Albemarle County as an option. County spokesperson Lee Catlin says that although there has been "discussion of it from time to time," the current zoning ordinance leaves things wide open for adult entertainment to slide in.

Catlin says neither she nor any of the people she spoke with is aware of a time when an adult entertainment business, such as a strip club, has been brought before the County planning board for approval.

Which doesn't mean it couldn't happen, of course.

Assuming a nudie-minded entrepreneur wanted to set up shop in the County, the only real roadblock would be finding the space and having the gumption to face unhappy neighbors. That's what the DPOC's Sewell believes has kept such businesses at bay so far.

"No one has the guts," he says.

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