» Strip clubs:
Milwaukee Common Council debates licensing vs. zoning approaches
Two proposals to regulate strip clubs in the city divide the Milwaukee Common Council. One would set licensing requirements for the clubs, the other would limit locations where they could open.
Two proposals to regulate strip clubs in the city are dividing the Milwaukee Common Council.
One would set licensing requirements for strip clubs. The other would limit locations where such clubs could open to areas of the city zoned light industrial, and set a 400foot “buffer” away from buildings like schools, day care and child care centers, residential care facilities, churches, homes, condominiums and apartments.
Ald. Terry Witkowski criticized the proposals and how they were introduced. He said the licensing requirements proposal was made public halfway through the Tuesday Licenses Committee meeting when it had been scheduled for a vote. “There was no list of people notified about this file, so that there would be no public input from business improvement districts, or neighborhoods, or anyone,” Witkowski said.
That licensing proposal was held at this week’s committee meeting. The zoning plan is scheduled to go before the city’s Zoning, Neighborhoods & Development Committee on Tuesday, but it is also expected to be held to give more time for public input.
“I’m very pleased that it was held. Still, the overriding thing is that these two measures take away people’s right to oppose a strip club because it would be a permitted use,” Witkowski said.
Ald. Jim Bohl removed himself as the sponsor on Wednesday. He said Friday that the ordinances were out-of-date proposals that he was trying to update in case another alderman forced a vote on them. He added that the previous drafts included strict provisions to regulate strip clubs, saying the initial plans helped save the city $12 million to $20 million in potential legal losses from club lawsuits.
“At this point, my sense is that there is not majority council support to move on any action,” Bohl said. “Now that we had one approved license downtown, and we aren’t facing any pending or current lawsuits.”
He added that the issue was forced by Ald. Bob Bauman.
Bauman said he was pushing the issue to avoid future strip club lawsuits.
“It is the height of lunacy to have your attorneys tell you there is a constitutional problem with your public entertainment premises license process and not fix that problem because all that will do is guarantee more applications on a random basis, more hearings, more contentious fighting between neighbors and business interests, and lawsuits,” Bauman said. Bauman said he supports both proposals. Last July, city officials approved a nearly $1 million payment to the owners of Silk Exotic over its past efforts to open in the heart of the city. The nearly $970,000 payout to Silk Exotic came about a month after Milwaukee’s city attorney urged aldermen to authorize the deal to avoid further legal fees.
In May, city leaders signed off on a license for the Executive Lounge strip club proposed for 730 N. Old World 3rd St. The owners of the lounge will include a combination of strip club operators who have previously applied to open downtown. They include Joseph Modl, Scott Krahn and Craig Ploetz of Silk Exotic on W. Silver Spring Road in Milwaukee, and Radomir Buzdum of Silk Exotic in Middleton and other clubs. The new group is named PPH Properties I LLC.
City officials that same month approved agreements with club owners saying they will, in turn, drop their lawsuits filed against the city over past blocked efforts to open downtown.
Ald. Tony Zielinski, chairman of the Licenses Committee, said he plans to schedule the licensing proposal for a vote soon.
“I think that the ordinances will get approved. Again, it will be a long debate and battle,” he said.
Zielinski said he was confident the ordinances would prevent future lawsuits and losses for the city, which battled for years over efforts to open a strip club downtown.
“The courts have ruled against the city, and from a fiscal perspective, this is our most responsible option,” he said.