Pure Gold plans to seek injunction

Action could

allow nude

dancing to continue

By CHANCE PRIGGE

Journal Staff Writer

NICOLLET -- Some people's problems in Nicollet regarding the Pure Gold strip club might be coming to at least a temporary end today.

But whether those issues involve the owners, the citizens, the City Council, everybody or nobody remains to be seen.

The club's amortization period ended at midnight, and the club is now expected to comply with the city's adult-use ordinance.

The ordinance says an adult-use primary, which includes cabarets like Pure Gold, can't be within 500 feet of residential property, which the business currently is.

To conform with the ordinance and lose its adult-use-primary status, Pure Gold must meet the ordinance's stipulations, including, among other things, no nude dancers.

Dave Benzinger, one of the club's co-owners, said the dancers would wear pasties and thongs beginning at midnight this morning. He also said an age limit will no longer be enforced.

"We'll be allowing all ages in here from midnight to tomorrow," Benzinger said Tuesday. "The city made us do it."

To avoid being an adult-primary use, the club "cannot discriminate by virtue of age," Benzinger said.

Nicollet City Administrator Dan Wietecha didn't agree.

"There's no need for them to do that for kids," Wietecha said.

Benzinger and co-owner Matt Halley plan to go to federal court Thursday to seek an injunction. Benzinger said he expects business to be back to normal by 7 p.m. Thursday.

"I've got the three best First Amendment lawyers in this country," Benzinger said. "They've been dealing with cases like this for the last 20 years."

Wietecha was expected to make a compliance check at the club this morning.

"I would expect that they comply with the ordinance," Wietecha said. "I would not be surprised if they did not comply."

Wietecha said if the club does quash the nudity, it is only halting one of the ordinance's two big issues. The other is sexual-activity simulation, which means the dancers could wear pasties, bikinis or snow suits but couldn't perform lap dances.

If Pure Gold doesn't comply, Wietecha, who is confident the ordinance will hold up in court, said it has three options: shutting down, relocating -- the town has about 20 acres of property that could be easily developed which is served by municipal utilities and more than 50 acres of property that meet the ordinance's zoning requirements for an adult-use primary -- or changing its line of business.

"They could decide to start making Christmas wreaths -- easy business to get into," Wietecha said.

Benzinger said no Christmas wreaths are going to be made inside the building.

Wietecha's compliance check comes months after he and the City Council worked on regulating adult businesses in Nicollet. The Adult Use Zoning Ordinance was approved in March.

The ordinance defines and classifies various adult businesses. It says adult-use primaries are required to be located in commercial and industrial zones in addition to meeting other ordinance provisions.

Wietecha said he and the City Council felt it was legitimate and appropriate to put some kind of regulation in place.

"It took us six months to write the Adult Use Zoning Ordinance," Wietecha said. "We've definitely given this an awful lot of considerations."

The relationship between the city and the club's owners has been rocky.

The owners have threatened to sue the city since it opened, Wietecha said. The owners and one of their lawyers, Randall Tigue, have been a common sight at Nicollet City Council meetings. Tigue has said the city's ordinance is unconstitutional.

"Simply by their choice of communication both during City Council meetings and in the media, I'd say it's not been a friendly relationship," Wietecha said.

Benzinger would agree. He said the club has tried to work with the city and offered to cover all of its $120,000 in property taxes.

"They'd rather spend $50,000 a year trying to fight us than have us paying their taxes and staying open," he said.

Benzinger claimed the City Council didn't inform the citizens of Nicollet about the club's offer.

"I'd prefer not to discuss that," Wietecha said. "If you want to know the truth, they offered a bribe and it wasn't that much."

Minnesota Statute 462.357 gives municipalities the authority for zoning ordinances. Subdivision 1c of that statute says a municipality may not enact, amend or enforce an ordinance that eliminates or terminates a business through amortization that was legal before the ordinance's inception. This does not apply, however, to adults-only businesses.

Benzinger said whether the club will have to move or not is up to its lawyers.

Pure Gold opened shop last fall under its previous name The Mirage after Benzinger and Halley found the city lacking ordinances on full-nudity strip clubs.