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Columbia zoning request laid bare
Editorials
"Cater to the client if you can," says the attorney who represents a Columbia strip club.
Generally speaking, that's sound advice. Sort of like, "The customer is always right," which is the business mantra of client service.
But when the "clients" are men who swig beer and hard liquor and ogle scantily clad women for entertainment and they want even more -- full nudity -- that's asking too much.
A number of Columbia residents think so -- and they are not alone.
Nude dancing isn't an appropriate activity for Columbia. For Lancaster County. Or anyplace, really. It's salacious. It's demeaning to women. It may be a legal activity, but it is not moral.
Columbia residents crowded into Wednesday's meeting of the borough's zoning hearing board to object to a proposed zoning change that would allow women at the establishment -- a BYOB club -- to shed their pasties and g-strings and dance in their birthday suits.
"It's a slap in the face to every woman in this town to allow this," complained one woman.
"Not in our town, please," said a man.
The club's manager -- who is also a dancer there -- says prohibiting nude dancing puts it at a competitive "disadvantage" with other BYOB clubs in Pennsylvania, which evidently have nude dancers on the payroll.
The issue dates back to 2007, when the borough found out that the club was employing nude dancers, ostensibly because it was operating at the time as a BYOB and not bound by state Liquor Control Board rules.
The borough ordered an end to the nude dancing. An appeal by the club was denied in 2009.
The club otherwise has a checkered past involving a previous owner who pleaded guilty to promoting prostitution.
The sort of dancing that goes on there now is only possible because it pre-dates the borough code adopted in 1999.
In seeking the zoning change, the club argues that, under the law, no other site in Columbia is suitable for nude dancing. But the borough disputes the claim.
In local zoning, community standards matter.
Up to this point, Columbia has tolerated the club for whatever reasons. But that counts for only so much.
Based on last week's meeting, residents have made it pretty clear that their level of tolerance is at a breaking point.
Zoning board members no doubt realize this, which should leave them no choice but to deny the club's rezoning request.
The club otherwise has a checkered past involving a previous owner who pleaded guilty to promoting prostitution.
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