Borough warning sparks debate over adult entertainment

MAT-SU -- While the borough is still working to craft a nuisance ordinance that may give property owners plagued by bass thumping emanating from Fish Heads Bar relief, code compliance officers had a different reason to visit the bar last week.

March 31, Fish Heads Bar advertised a revue of "Men of Playgirl," and owner Bob Stevens planned to bring Chippendale dancers to the bar last Wednesday. Stevens said the shows are part of an effort to add a sexy theme to the bar.

"A bar without sex appeal is like a bowling alley without [bowling] balls," Stevens said. "It's not very realistic. It's part of adult entertainment -- it's fun."

But Mat-Su Borough Code Compliance officer Ken Hudson said his staff served a "cease and desist" order Tuesday, warning Stevens that if he held the Chippendale show, he'd be doing so in violation of Mat-Su Borough Code. Although the show was for adults only, Hudson said the shows could fall under the borough's definition of "adult entertainment," which is prohibited in the borough's core area unless a conditional-use permit has been approved for the use.

Borough code states that businesses within the borough's core area must have a conditional-use permit in order to operate an adult business. It also states that it's illegal in the borough to serve alcohol where "adult entertainment" is going on.

Hudson said this isn't the first contact he or his office has had with Stevens regarding activities that may fall under the borough's "adult entertainment" definition. He said he had a telephone conversation with Stevens on March 5, discussing "shadow dancing," or sexy, semi-nude dancing behind a backlit screen.

"It had been objected to by some folks," Hudson said. "He said he knew about it and did not intend to violate the borough ordinance."

Hudson added that, although the borough definition prohibits "any motion picture, live performance, display or dance of any type whose dominant theme is actual or simulated specified sexual activities, display or exhibition of specified anatomical areas, removal of articles of clothing, or total nudity, offered for commercial purposes." It's not clear if shadow dancing, specifically, falls into that category. It's the last two words, "commercial purposes," Hudson said, that give him pause.

"Does that mean paid performers or payment to watch?" Hudson asked. "If you've got to pay to go in there and watch it, then it's looking to be in violation of borough code."

The two male dancing shows, however, more clearly fall into the category, Hudson said. And while the other shows seem designed to come close to the rule without blatantly violating it, he said he was a little surprised Stevens went ahead with the dancing shows.

Stevens said he knew about the ordinance.

"I didn't think it applied to us," Stevens said. He said the ordinance is too broad to be supportable.

"By definition, a bar is adult entertainment," Stevens said. "It basically says you can't even take your coat off. If you can't have adult entertainment in a bar, where can you have it?"

When told the Chippendale show would be in violation of borough code, Stevens said he canceled it, much to the dismay of about 300 women who were planning to attend.

"I don't think you can imagine 300 women, mad because they can't see men dancing around in their underwear, doing a comedy revue," Stevens said.

Stevens said he rescheduled the show for July 23, and isn't planning to get a conditional-use permit. Not serving alcohol during the show, he said, would make for a strange situation on several levels.

"You can't have the permit in a bar, and I'm not going to do it in the bowling alley," Stevens said. "It doesn't make sense to me to have the Chippendales somewhere where you can't serve alcohol -- you'd have a bunch of uptight people. And the Chippendales get 100 percent of the door revenues."

The bar, he said, would only make money on beverages sold during the show, so not being able to serve alcohol would significantly limit the money generated from the program. Stevens said he recognizes that the July show will be in violation of borough code. He said while he doesn't want to fight the borough, he thinks the matter could be settled through a court case. He believes that the borough inappropriately made the ordinance apply only within the core area, a distinction he said he doesn't believe will hold up under the scrutiny of the court system.

"I don't really have a problem with zoning and that stuff, but if they're going to stop guys from dancing around in their underwear, they've gone too far," Stevens said. "I doubt there's a bar in the entire Valley where that doesn't happen on a weekly basis."

Hudson said there are efforts afoot to broaden the application of the code to the whole borough. Clubs that have opened recently, such as the non-alcoholic Texas Showgirls club north of Houston, have given neighbors pause.

"The reason the code is in place is because of people's concern about the impact in a neighborhood area of this type of use," Hudson said. "Certain people have expressed concern about this mixed use."

Contact Rindi White at rindi.white@frontiersman.com.