Nicollet gears up for hearing

Council OKs more

adult use ordinances

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NICOLLET -- In an effort to gear up for next Wednesday night's evidentiary public hearings on non-conforming adult uses, the Nicollet City Council unanimously approved two more related ordinances Wednesday night.

The ordinances are in response to The Mirage strip club that opened last fall in a former boat manufacturing plant a block west of downtown.

Through amortization, the council intends to move the strip club out of the heart of town to industrial-zoned land on the east side of U.S. Highway 14.

One of the new ordinances contained housekeeping amendments to the Nicollet City Zoning Ordinance including clarification of zoning designation on 55.9 acres as industrial; expressed authorization of amortization of non-conforming uses per statute; amendments to the standards for size, location and construction of signs; and clarification of procedural requirements for the Board of Adjustment and Appeals.

The other ordinance provided narrowly-drawn definitions including specified anatomical areas, specified sexual activities, adult uses including incidental, non-protected, primary/principal and adult cabarets.

Nicollet City Administrator Dan Wietecha told the council he recently sent cover letters and notices of next Wednesday's public hearing to The Mirage, The Cabin Bar and the Mug and Jug.

The two bars feature video games that include images of anatomical parts. The In-Laws bar also had such a video game but recently disabled it, Wietecha said.

He assured the council that amortization holds up in court.

He cited a recent case similar to Nicollet's situation.

Wietecha passed out copies of Jake's, Ltd., Inc.; Richard J. Jacobson v. the City of Coates, Mn. The case was filed March 26, 2002 in the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Jake's Bar in Coates, a town of 182 people, 15 miles southeast of St. Paul, featured live nude dancing since early 1992. The Coates City Council enacted a zoning ordinance in 1994 that strictly limited the location of sexually-oriented businesses.

Jake's sued, and the district court declared the ordinance unconstitutionally infringed the First Amendment protection afforded to nude dancing as a form of expressive conduct.

The city enacted an amended zoning ordinance and a restrictive licensing ordinance. Jake's sued again.

Ruling on cross motions for summary judgment, the district judge upheld the current ordinances. Jake's appealed, and the case was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction on Nov. 12, 2001.

In other action, the council approved:

* A resolution for the issuance by the Nicollet Economic Development Authority of $407,839 in revenue bonds to finance a 10-unit housing project. The resolution included a 7 percent PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) Agreement.

* Wietecha releasing payments of $14,654 for the 2001 Street and Utility Improvements at Mara Tonka Addition and Heideman Avenue. The city withheld payments due to soil issues that have been corrected at a cost of about $6,000.

* The purchase of material and labor for stainless steel trash baskets on rails for lift station No. 1 and 2 at a total cost of $3,500 plus freight and sales tax.

* The council did not act on a donation request by the Nicollet SADD Chapter which is organizing the 11th annual After-Prom Party for junior and senior students.

The council meets at 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 17 for the public hearings on the nude dancing issue.