Idaho Man Seeking Permit To Build Club In/Around: Nevada/ Lidgerwood

A North Idaho businessman is seeking permission to build a nightclub at Francis and Lidgerwood that will feature topless dancing.

The city hearing examiner will consider the request at 9 a.m. Tuesday during a City Hall hearing.

A hearing is needed because of a city ordinance that prohibits adult entertainment in buildings within 750 feet of a residential use.

The proposed site at 6363 N. Lidgerwood is 35 feet short of meeting that standard. It now houses Moose Lodge No. 161.

The application is being made by Timothy D. Cameron of Wallace through Spokane attorney Brian T. Butler.

Butler said his client has an option to purchase the building and is planning a sophisticated night club with valet parking and security.

“There won’t be alcohol, there won’t be magazines, there won’t be books,” said Butler. “This is intended to be a very, very, very upscale nightclub.”

Plans do call for live entertainment and topless dancing in accordance with state laws. But even that will be for limited hours and have less impact on the neighborhood than a bar that used to occupy the site, he argued.

“We intend to be a great neighbor,” he said.

In the application to the city planning and zoning department, Butler states adult entertainment uses cannot be zoned out of the city, though that is largely what has occurred.

“The significant reduction of sites available for this type of use provokes the question of constitutional rights being taken by the stringent standard of this ordinance,” Butler writes in his application.

The ordinance was passed by the City Council in 1987 after 26,000 signatures were received from residents asking for stricter standards.

A 1986 decision by the Washington Supreme Court allows the use of zoning to regulate adult entertainment as long as the criteria is aimed toward curbing the “deterioration of residential neighborhoods,” and not aimed at driving the enterprises out of business.

In approving the ordinance, city legal staff determined the 750-foot standard was appropriate as it would have allowed 132 acres - 18 sites citywide for the businesses.

In addition to residential uses, it bars the activities within 750 feet of schools, playgrounds, churches, kindergartens, day cares or other adult entertainment sites.

Butler maintains the proposed land is a good location for such a business but it was downzoned after passage of a neighborhood comprehensive plan.