The man behind the Stimson Avenue strip club proposal has appealed the second decision to deny him access to the building.
The second appeal, filed June 19 in Athens County Court of Common Pleas, argues that the Athens Board of Zoning Appeals hinders First Amendment rights by not allowing a strip club.
The board originally denied Shade resident Chris Stotts usage of 11 and 13 W. Stimson Ave., as a strip club at its March 11 meeting because it did not fit the character of the street or permitted uses for the area.
Code Enforcement Officer Steve Pierson forwarded the application to the board because he was unsure if city codes permitted the club.
Stotts and his lawyer, Scott Mergenthaler, appealed the board's first decision to the Court of Common Pleas April 1.
Stotts then submitted three new applications with permitted uses for the building ' entertainment, nightclub or assembly hall ' to Pierson. Pierson rejected these applications based on the board's previous decision.
Stotts appealed Pierson's second decision to the board, which rejected the proposal again at its May 13 meeting based on the same grounds as the previous decision.
Mergenthaler will request that the two cases, awaiting hearing dates, be consolidated, he said.
A strip club is a permitted use of the building
and the board is just regulating First Amendment-protected activity Mergenthaler said.
Demetrios Prokos, the building's owner, previously pursued plans for the same building to house an apartment and restaurant complex, although the length of time to finalize those plans was costing him too much money, Prokos said at the board's May 13 meeting.
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Brigitta Burks
