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Tuesday, February 09, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Council OKs strip club expansion
Despite accusations and one abstention, Crazy Horse Too receives approval for an already completed addition.
By Mike Zapler
Review-Journal
After a circuslike hearing Monday, the Las Vegas City Council approved an expansion at the Crazy Horse Too that the strip club already had completed.
The two-hour debate jumped from perceived conflicts of interest by Councilman Michael McDonald and Mayor Jan Jones to crime in Meadows Village, the low-income neighborhood near Crazy Horse Too.
In between, the council heard arguments about why the strip club on Industrial Road at Sahara Avenue should or should not be granted an exception to a city law prohibiting the 6,000-square-foot expansion.
Club owner Rick Rizzolo has said he was told only after construction began that he needed to obtain a variance because the club is within 1,000 feet of other sexually oriented businesses.
Chuck Gardner, an attorney representing an expansion opponent, said Rizzolo "put the crazy before the horse" when he decided to complete the addition without the variance, risking an $800,000 investment if the council voted against the variance.
But there was little doubt during Monday's meeting that Rizzolo would leave with his variance. Council members said they saw no reason to deny the addition because the strip club is in an industrial area where many of the city's other sexually oriented businesses are situated. They voted 4-0 to approve the variance, with McDonald abstaining.
Jones said controversy about expansion was fanned by former City Councilman Steve Miller, a relentless foe of the mayor's. During the meeting, she produced a recent issue of the Las Vegas Tribune, which featured a front page story penned by Miller on the Crazy Horse Too expansion.
"For ... Mr. Miller to use this for political purposes is inappropriate," Jones said.
Miller, who is running this spring for mayor against Jones for the second time, said in an interview that he's glad the Crazy Horse addition became an issue because "this is a quality of life issue that should be examined."
Jones also declined to heed a call from Miller ally David Beamis to abstain from the vote because she attended a Christmas party hosted by Rizzolo. She was backed by Deputy City Attorney Steve George, who said state ethics law did not require abstention.
After Jones' announcement, Beamis sped out of the meeting in his electric wheelchair, yelling and nearly running over a young child.
Jones was not the only politician put on the defensive. McDonald abstained from voting, but not before angrily responding to questions about his friendship with Rizzolo.
McDonald has led an effort over the past two years to fine or shut down other sexually oriented businesses he said haven't complied with city code. One of them was L.A. Hot, an adult book store next to Crazy Horse Too that closed after the city threatened to shut it down for operating without required licenses.
McDonald said his actions against other businesses have been legitimate. Never mentioning Rizzolo, he said his reason for abstaining Monday was because Crazy Horse Too was represented by an attorney McDonald had employed in a civil case.
"Let's forget the rumors and let's get on with the business," McDonald said, apparently referring to questions over whether he and his staff helped Rizzolo with the project.
There was scant opposition to the expansion.
Jones criticized the Meadows Village property owner who had appealed the city Board of Zoning Adjustment's unanimous approval of the addition.
Andrea Banks said the expansion would foster drug dealing and prostitution in nearby Meadows Village, where she owns property. But Jones turned the issue on Banks, noting that an apartment complex Banks' owned in Meadows Village was condemned by the city.
Jones went so far as to call Neighborhood Services Director Sharon Segerblom to the podium to describe conditions at Banks' property.
""That's a different issue mayor; you have no right to bring that up," Banks shot back.
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