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Tuesday, February 02, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Strip club pursues expansion approval
The owner of the Crazy Horse Too has completed a 6,000-square-foot addition and seeks a zoning change.
By Mike Zapler
Review-Journal
An outgoing telephone message for Crazy Horse Too thanks people for calling "the all new, bigger and better than ever" strip club on Industrial Road.
But club operators may need to change that recording next week if the Las Vegas City Council decides Monday against their request to enlarge the business by about one-third -- even though construction already is done on the 6,000-square-foot addition.
Crazy Horse Too is asking the council to make an exception to a zoning ordinance prohibiting strip clubs from expanding if they are within 1,000 feet of another sexually oriented business. A negative vote would mean club owner Rick Rizzolo would be out about $800,000 already invested. Rizzolo said he learned only after construction began that a variance is needed.
Rather than stop construction, Rizzolo said he took a chance and completed the addition with the expectation the zoning variance would be granted -- and knowing if it isn't he will have to return the club to its former state.
"It's really all my risk involved," Rizzolo said, adding he likely will sue if the city denies the variance.
Whether Rizzolo's gamble pays off will be known Monday. The city's Board of Zoning Adjustments approved his application 5-0 on Jan. 5, but the vote was appealed to the City Council. A nearby resident and a business are protesting the expansion, saying it will increase traffic, create parking problems and negatively affect the Meadows Village neighborhood.
"The Crazy Horse may legally have strippers and alcohol, but the rest of what goes on around there is no good for morals and brings in drugs and hookers," said resident Andrea Banks, who owned an apartment building in Meadows Village that the city closed down because it was not up to code. "If anything, Crazy Horse should be grandfathered out -- it certainly shouldn't be added to."
Banks said hundreds of children living near the club are exposed to drug dealers and drug seekers driving through the neighborhood to get to Crazy Horse Too -- a situation that will only worsen, she said, if the club is allowed to expand.
Councilman Michael McDonald, a friend of Rizzolo's whose ward encompasses Crazy Horse Too, declined comment on the expansion and said he will abstain from the vote. McDonald also has employed the same attorney who is representing Crazy Horse Too, Anthony Sgro.
McDonald has led an effort the past two years to fine or shut down other sexually oriented businesses that fail to comply with city code.
Despite McDonald's silence on the issue, his office has not been totally removed from the issue. McDonald aide Doug Rankin sat and conversed with Crazy Horse Too attorneys at the Jan. 5 Board of Zoning Adjustment meeting.
About a week later, Rankin called a Henderson man trying to appeal the expansion to the City Council. Rankin wanted to know how the man would be affected by the expansion to determine whether he was qualified to lodge an appeal.
McDonald said he had "no idea" Rankin had become involved. Rankin said he saw nothing wrong with his actions because his job involves working on zoning issues in McDonald's ward.
The 6,000-square-foot addition expands Crazy Horse Too to about 26,000 square feet. The extra space is being used as a dressing room for the club's 600 workers.
Rizzolo said the former dressing room serves as office space but eventually would be converted into an additional entertainment area with a stage and bar.
City planners, who have allowed Rizzolo to use the addition pending the outcome of next week's vote, back his request. Deputy Planning Director Doug Powell said the club is in an industrial area with many of the city's other sexually oriented businesses.
But Chuck Gardner, an attorney for opponents of the expansion, said there is no reason a variance should be granted. He said the building plans submitted by Crazy Horse Too are so vague they seemed to be submitted "as a formality" and called the proposed enlargement "flat-out illegal."
"If they're going to make an exception, why did they pass the law in the first place?" Gardner asked.
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The Crazy Horse Too Gentleman's Club on Industrial Road is seeking city approval of a variance for a 6,000-square-foot expansion, but opponents say the enlargement will foster crime and create parking problems. City Councilman Michael McDonald, a friend of club owner Rick Rizzolo, plans to abstain from voting.
Photo by Jeff Scheid.
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