zoning code – Memphis Flyer

When the local Crime Commission looked at crime data from January to June 2004, they found a surprising fact: Christie’s — an adult nightclub that boasts hot girls and one-cent drafts — accounted for only 0.1 percent of all crime in its ward.

During that same period, however, nearby Hickory Ridge Mall accounted for 7.5 percent of the crime in the area. In fact, even Ridgeway Middle School reported more crime than Christie’s.

But for Eric Damian Kelly, the strip-club-ordinance specialist, even those numbers suggest the city needs to change its relationship with sexually oriented businesses.

Both the City Council and the County Commission are considering new restrictions on sexually oriented businesses, including a ban on alcohol sales and stricter licensing requirements.

“The Memphis Shelby Crime Commission did a study with the records to show adverse secondary effects on the community,” Kelly told a recent City Council committee. “They found high schools and convenience stores were more of a detriment to the community than strip clubs.”

Of course, if that were true, Memphis would be in more trouble than a cheating husband. Local strip clubs have a reputation for being raunchy, as well as havens for illegal activity. The so-called Mt. Moriah Performing Arts Center, Platinum Plus, where Kelly witnessed a live sex show, was shut down last December because of drugs and prostitution. The Black Tail Shake Joint, known for its “back door,” was closed in February under a public nuisance complaint.

But the numbers — or lack of them — are somewhat telling. The Crime Commission noted that most strip clubs have a “do not call” policy when it comes to law enforcement; generally, schools and convenience stores do not.

Currently, the city handles violations at sexually oriented businesses in three ways: beer board fines for the establishment, fines for individual dancers, and nuisance complaints.

But those options provide about as much coverage as a G-string.

The business fines are too small to matter. Brief suspensions of beer licenses have little impact, and within recent history, the beer board hasn’t revoked anyone’s license.

A fine might make a dancer think twice about hopping back on stage — if her establishment doesn’t pay it for her — but there are always other girls to take her place. And the nuisance complaints take months, if not years, to develop a solid case.

“You need to shift enforcement,” Kelly said. “Cite the establishment instead of the performers. It’s worth going after the back rooms.”

In a report to the council, Kelly recommended banning back rooms that are not visible to the public and utilizing penalty provisions with fines up to $2,500 and possible jail time.

Though the report suggests citing owners and managers, dancers could face stricter penalties, too. The report said dancers should be prosecuted for prostitution since the penalties for that are more serious than penalties for “being bottomless.”

And let’s be honest. Being bottomless is one thing. Being bottomless and on top of someone giving you dollar bills is another.

More importantly, Kelly recommended keeping a record of every citation or violation for alcohol, drugs, nudity, and sexual activity and tracking it by establishment, owner, and entertainer.

In the past, clubs have changed names — even their holding companies have changed names — while the owners and the establishment remain virtually the same. There are several clubs in town, but only a few owners.

For Kelly, a tough licensing ordinance would go a long way in eliminating repeat offenders.

“You [should be] able to pull [an owner’s] license and he wouldn’t be able to get another one,” Kelly said.

County commissioner Mike Ritz, sponsor of the county proposal, agreed. “Everybody who works in the clubs and all the owners would have to get a license. It doesn’t take long to say you’re going to be out of here.”

Not that everything is a done deal. The county is expected to hold a public hearing later this month, and new council member Henry Hooper II is working with Ritz on a joint city/county proposal. City Council members were interested in the implications of a ban on alcohol sales and the legal challenges they would encounter.

(Apparently, “birthday” aren’t the only suits club owners are familiar with.)

“They’re going to sue you as a matter of principle if you take a hard line,” Kelly told council members, “because you’re threatening their income.”

I know there are people out there who think regulating sexually oriented businesses is a waste of time. Maybe it is. The city has let shake joints get away with so much for so long, it might be better off creating a strip-club district and taking the local industry from infamous to just plain famous. Doing that, however, would still require more regulation.

On its own, a tougher licensing ordinance — along with a better relationship between club owners and operators and police officers — could forgo the need for undercover operations, such as the 24-month investigation that succeeded in closing Platinum Plus.

Veteran councilmember Jack Sammons said he’d rather see police officers fighting crime than staking out the shake joints.

“I want to see our police resources on the ground dealing with the crime issues we have,” Sammons said. “When we have officers measuring if someone is 12 inches away from Pamela Anderson, then I think we have a problem.”

It’s been said that there are more churches in Memphis than gas stations. But maybe that doesn’t have as much to do with the city’s faith as its zoning codes. At a public meeting on the Broad Avenue Corridor Planning Initiative last week, citizens expressed concern that a church could build on residential property and there would be nothing the neighborhood could do to stop it.

“That’s true,” said Lee Einsweiler, a consultant helping to draft a Unified Development Code for Memphis and Shelby County. “Many communities regulate churches more than Memphis does.”

Perhaps looking for a little more regulation, the joint city/county division of planning and development began crafting a new unified development code two years ago. Because of its unique challenges and strengths, the Broad Avenue area became their urban laboratory last year.

The area, which spans East Parkway to Tillman and Poplar to Summer, was virtually split in two during the Sam Cooper Blvd. extension project. Though the project closed off the neighborhood of aging homes, warehouses, and buildings that have seen better days, it also left a large tract of highly developable land near Sam Cooper.

The goal of the unified development code is twofold: enable the redevelopment and revitalization of the older, urban areas of Memphis and promote the development of suburban areas in a fiscally responsible manner.

“The hope is we’ll generate some new development in the area,” said Einsweiler. “The new zoning should make it easier to build a house. … That should bring up the value of the surrounding property.”

The new plan for the area would replace rules that are largely “suburban” in nature with something that more closely fits with the existing buildings.

“In the past in Memphis, the smallest lot size [for a single-family residential home] has been 6,000 square feet,” said Einsweiler. “To match the existing pattern, we’ve reduced the lot size to 3,000 square feet. It doesn’t mean you have to build that size. It just means that’s the minimum allowed.”

Architecture, paint color, and building materials aren’t dictated by the code — though they may be under the neighborhood’s historic designation — but building height would be. The overall area will have heights ranging from two to five stories but will be designated strategically.

Taller buildings will be allowed in the core neighborhood and at Sam Cooper and Tillman “as an incentive for development,” said Einsweiler, “and at North Parkway to give it a gateway feel.”

Broad Avenue might be one of the most appropriately named streets in the city. A wide, empty street, it makes the area seem like a ghost town. You might even expect to see gunslingers come out at noon, pistols at the ready. And planners hope pedestrian-friendly requirements such as windows, front doors, and a limited amount of blank wall facing the street will make the avenue active and alive.

But citizens at the meeting were concerned about some building uses allowed under the proposed code such as day-care centers and cell towers in residential areas.

Einsweiler said those things are allowed now.

“We can talk about being more restrictive,” said Einsweiler. “Right now, we just carried on with the existing code.”

And perhaps that — carrying on with the existing code — is the main thing that needs to change. The Land Use Control Board and the City Council rarely meet a development they don’t like. The proposed code would limit their subjective power, replacing it with a map of zoned districts and control in the hands of the professional planning staff.

The other component of the unified code does away with suburban rules in an urban area. Under the current code, for instance, if you want to build on Broad, you would need to put your new building 30 feet back from the street. This has resulted in parking lots that merge almost — almost — seamlessly with the street and degradation of any pedestrian culture the area once had.

Since last spring’s public design meeting, the area is seeing change. “A number of people are investing in Broad,” said Einsweiler. “There’s going to be a coffee shop on Broad; the pet store just changed hands. … The city engineer thinks that they’ll find it in the budget next July to stripe Broad with angle parking. There is action in the works.”

The unified code will probably be on the table within eight months. Both the City Council and the County Commission will have to approve it.

Maybe a bunch of new rules sounds like too easy a solution. But getting the code past the powers-that-be will probably be a fight.