The Athens City Board of Zoning Appeals unanimously turned down a proposed West Stimson Avenue strip club last night after determining the club would not fit the character of the street.
Board members rejected the club because its location in the former New-to-You thrift shop would have been surrounded by the Hocking Valley Bank, Athens Post Office, neighborhoods and an elementary school ' none of which jive with a strip club, said Board Member Betty Hollow.
Additionally, a strip club is not explicitly allowed by city codes, she said.
But Scott Mergenthaler, the lawyer for the man who signed the club's zoning application, said a strip club fits the dictionary definition of an assembly hall
which is permitted by city codes. Those codes do not provide definitions for what is allowed to be built in an area, only broad categories such as assembly hall making it possible to include a strip club under one of these categories.
Since they weren't defined I just resorted to the dictionary
Mergenthaler said.
Chris Stotts, of Shade, Ohio, applied for a zoning permit for a strip club on Dec. 17. After some speculation that the application was a ploy to soften regulations, Stotts told The Post it was always his intention to open a strip club.
But last Tuesday, Demetrios Prokos, who owns the West Stimson Avenue property, submitted alternate plans for the building that include apartments, stores and a restaurant and require several variances for the location. On Thursday, he said he would abandon the strip club if city officials were favorable to the new plans.
The strip club's plan featured two stages that would showcase exotic male and female dancers with a six-foot perimeter to separate the dancers from the customers and 120 seats, Mergenthaler said.
Serving food, beverages or alcohol would not have been permitted, but patrons could have brought their own, he added.
Stotts' next step could be an appeal to the Athens County Court of Common Pleas, Mergenthaler said. Prokos said in a previous interview that he was prepared to take the case to court if the zoning board did not allow the strip club. Stotts did not attend last night's meeting because he was working, Mergenthaler said.
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Brigitta Burks
