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Commission votes down proposed strip club in Las Cruces

I swear people in this town are VERY FUCKING STUPID...

LAS CRUCES — After two hours of overwhelmingly negative public commentary, the Las Cruces Planning and Zoning Commission voted 3-1 Tuesday against allowing a proposed strip club in this city.

The commission's vote drew a loud round of applause from the standing-room only audience that packed the Council Chambers to mostly speak out against a proposal to build the area's first strip club in more than 25 years.

Attorney Karen Wootton, who is representing the project applicants, said she will appeal the commission's ruling to the City Council. She declined to comment further.

Quoting scripture and warning of a moral catastrophe, dozens of Las Crucens, including ministers and business leaders, spoke out against the application.

They warned the Commission that proposed strip club, "The Bronx," would objectify women, damage the city's character and quality of life, increase crime, lower property values and erode the social fabric.

As Jesse and Mariah Hernandez, the project applicants, looked on with their attorney in the packed Council Chambers, some speakers likened their proposed enterprise to legalized pimping and dog fighting, and warned that it would deprive Las Cruces of "God's blessings".

After a short recess, the commission voted down the strip club. Commissioner Charles B. Scholz was the lone vote in favor of the project.

"I think it's their legal right to do it," said Scholz, who called the commission's vote an anti-business decision.

"It bothers me when people want to use the law and the influence of the city, to push their morality. That's not what the law is about," Scholz said.

The proposed strip club was to be located next to Eros, the adult-themed book and video store located in the 2200 block of Westgate Court. The nearest school is more than a mile away, with the closest church and day care both located more than 4,000 feet from the site.

Those distances — plus the fact that the strip club would be in an industrial zone — met the city's zoning requirements for adult businesses. Wootton told the commissioners that the project was constitutionally protected.

"The city of Las Cruces, like every other city in the country, cannot completely prohibit adult entertainment," said Wootton.

"The First Amendment protects my clients' rights to offer adult entertainment in Las Cruces and the right of people to partake of those businesses," said Wootton, who argued that moral objections to the strip club were not relevant to a zoning issue.

However, the overwhelming sentiment of those in the audience was that morality was an important factor for the commissioners to consider.

One older man said the strip club would give the devil an opportunity to destroy lives and block God's blessings on Las Cruces. Several speakers urged the commissioners to imagine their daughters or granddaughters "degrading" themselves by working in a strip club.

Other speakers — each given two minutes to speak — warned that a strip club would increase prostitution, drug use, crime and public disturbances.

"If you gotta get a job that way, forget it. It's not worth it," said Francis Burke of Las Cruces.

Business owners in the area also expressed concerns about the strip club bringing more on-street parking to Westgate Court, a small cul-de-sac, as well as encouraging criminal activity.

Central Park LLC, the company applying to build The Bronx , says the business would benefit the city's economy by increasing tax revenue and employing 30 to 50 people. The company says it would recruit employees from the locally-trained labor force who now commute to El Paso for work in similar venues.

Of about four-dozen speakers, only four young men defended the strip club on principles of individual liberty and the separation of church and state.

"This is a zoning issue. This is not subject to the moral majority," said one young defender of the strip club.

One woman asked in jest if the strip club would also hire male strippers, and whether it would be just topless or "bottomless."

But most speakers told the commission that the establishment would destroy lives. A Baptist minister said his foster daughter had been sexually and physically abused after working in a strip club. Other speakers said the business would exploit women and undermine families.

Jim Smith of Las Cruces said his grown daughter became sterile after she contracted a sexually transmitted disease two years after working in a strip club.

"I know personally what it does to people," Smith said.

The Bronx would be housed in a 4,000 square-foot metal building, with a 41-space parking lot, that the applicants say blends in with the neighboring industrial area. The Bronx would sell alcohol and operate Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., with entertainment beginning around 4 p.m., according to the project description.

A report prepared by the city's Community Development Department's staff recommended conditional approval of the strip club, as long as the business owners promise to have no outdoor special events, pay for no-parking signs on Westgate Court, build a fence around the property, and maintain landscaping.

The Community Development Department staff also said the strip club project does not conflict with the city's comprehensive plan, noting that it meets city zoning requirements that adult entertainment venues be placed in industrial zones at least 1,000 feet from schools, churches and parks.