Crazy Horse out of the gate

Even though the owners of the Crazy Horse Too strip club came out of Monday's Las Vegas City Council hearing as winners, they say they still plan to sue the city for what they consider a yearlong hardship related to the club's expansion and an even longer battle over the classification of their business.

The council voted unanimously to deny an appeal by property owner Andrea Smith Banks alleging that the 6,000-foot expansion of the club was illegal and a detriment to the neighboring Meadows Village residents. Councilman Michael McDonald abstained from the vote, citing his friendship with club owner Rick Rizzolo.

The two-hour hearing at times resembled more a court than a council meeting as lawyers for the city, the club and Banks engaged in sharp exchanges, cited case law and referenced various city and state codes.

On Jan. 5, the Board of Zoning Adjustment approved a variance allowing Crazy Horse Too to expand its club even though the business is not allowed to do so due to its city classification as "nonconforming."

The strip club, located at 2330 Industrial Road, was built in 1979 and taken over by Crazy Horse owners in 1981. Two other adult businesses, a bookstore and Cheetah's strip club, opened nearby.

However, it wasn't until 1992 that the council amended its space requirements between sexually oriented businesses to 1,000 feet, measured property line to property line. When that ordinance passed, all three sexually oriented businesses were within 1,000 feet of each other, or "nonconforming" with the new law.

Cheetah's was 773 feet away and the bookstore was 483 feet away.

As such all three were classified as nonconforming. As nonconforming, they are not allowed to expand, without first obtaining a variance.

But that's not what Crazy Horse was told by the city.

As early as 1993, in a memo from then-Planning Director Rick Williams, Crazy Horse owners were told they were "conforming" because they were there first.

Armed with the memo and having had subsequent discussions with city staff, Crazy Horse started an expansion project in 1997.

"The owners of Crazy Horse Too were given incorrect information by planning staff," admitted Doug Powell, deputy director of planning.

Dean Patti, an attorney representing Crazy Horse, said that the club had a reasonable assumption that the expansion was allowed.

"Businesses have a right to depend on the rules and the law," Patti told the council.

He said Crazy Horse met with staff "before a single nail was driven" and was told the expansion was allowed.

"It wasn't until our final occupancy permits were requested that they said, 'Get a variance,' " Patti said.

After the variance was granted -- amid no protest -- Banks appealed.

"Quite frankly, a lot of it seems a little suspect as it comes four months before an election," Patti said.

Mayor Jan Laverty Jones agreed, at one point mentioning political foe Steve Miller when one of Miller's friends, bound to a wheelchair, took the microphone in opposition to Crazy Horse. After Jones disagreed with him, he sped angrily away from the microphone yelling, "I renounce my residency."

Paul Wilkins, director of the city's Building and Safety department, cited seven different permits for approval Crazy Horse obtained between March and December 1998. On Nov. 3, Crazy Horse was granted a demolition permit. A tenant improvement permit was granted Dec. 12.

"Everything is in order as far as the building department is concerned," Wilkins said.

Although Crazy Horse may have begun construction-related work in December 1997, various city planning and building staff members have conflicting stories as to when the club was granted its first permit. Numerous construction permits were granted from March to December 1998.

"They put the crazy before the horse when they decided that they would go ahead and build before they got the permit," Chuck Gardner, an attorney representing Banks, said.

Banks, who had owned an apartment building two blocks away from the club for 28 years, argued the expansion was a "flagrant violation of the law."

She also said the police have been unable to control drugs and prostitution in the area.

But the crime report instantly took a different tack when Jones asked Sharon Segerblom, the city's manager of Neighborhood Services, to talk about the impact Banks' building had on the neighborhood.

Segerblom showed a graph outlining a significant drop in crime after Banks was issued a demolition order on her building and had to tear it down.

Metro Police were called to Banks' building 83 times during an 11-month period for drug problems, according to Segerblom.

Councilman Larry Brown said he believed that the city had taken Crazy Horse Too, too far.

"We have taken this applicant, regardless of the usage, too far to go back," Brown said.

archive