The city of Umatilla is moving forward with a moratorium on adult businesses despite little input from the public.
“I clearly do not want to get rid of businesses that are doing well in this town. There are too few of them,” Councilman Lyle Smith said Tuesday. “(And) I find it frustrating that people are not involved in their own community.”
Umatilla’s limited restrictions on businesses had dotted downtown with services some consider questionable: strip clubs, liquor stores, a massage parlor and Pandora’s Box Smoke Shop. Last month, local residents spoke out against the town’s business practices.
Despite the buzz that crossed state lines, only two Umatilla residents spoke out about the moratorium – both already associated with the issue.
Steve Bunn, owner of Honey Bunnz Hideout, the city’s newest form of “adult entertainment,” had one question for the city council: Why now?
“I come in, I do everything I’m asked. I’m operating a legal business. I’m not harassing nobody. I’m being harassed,” he said. “What have I done for all of you people to come here and attack me?”
Bunn pointed out only two strip clubs are operating in the city currently, not three as previously reported, because Night Moves Gentleman’s Club has closed. Honey Bunnz Hideout and the Riverside Sports Bar and Lounge – which features an adult entertainment area separate from its sports bar and restaurant – remain operational, and, by all appearances, successful.
While two strip clubs for a town of 7,000 people may seem high, the Umatilla establishments are the only strip clubs in Eastern Oregon, according to the user-maintained website “The Ultimate Strip Club List.” On the Washington side, the closest operational club may be in Spokane, and strip clubs on the northern side of the Columbia face more red tape than those within Oregon’s borders. The state has consistently ruled adult entertainment is a form of free speech, and, therefore protected.
The state’s support has a big impact: TUSCL records nine strip clubs in Seattle and 72 in Portland.
Locally, the city of Umatilla has done little to regulate its businesses, and that may be changing.
The council’s consensus is the first step in a moratorium prohibiting any new adult businesses from opening in Umatilla. The city cannot even begin its moratorium until it has hammered out what constitutes an adult business and followed the 45-day period – including a public hearing – mandated before the moratorium could go into effect. The moratorium would give the city time to draft regulations to govern any new establishments.
“Anything we do with these regulations would not affect existing businesses,” Umatilla City Manager Bob Ward said. “There’s nothing we could even consider now that would affect those …. They would be grandfathered in.”
Ward said the moratorium will coincide with the city’s moratorium on marijuana dispensaries. Neither moratorium bans any type of business, but the actions prohibit any new businesses from opening for a specific time period so they city can draft regulations to deal with those businesses. Ward said both moratoriums could fall under an overall business plan for the city.
John Nichols, the former Umatilla Planning Commission member who resigned after the commission approved Honey Bunnz, said he was disappointed in the community for the low meeting turnout. Nichols said he had nothing against Bunn personally.
“I have no objection with what he’s doing. I’m not going to service him. I’m not going to go down there, that’s for sure… the thing is we need to be able to have some control,” Nichols said.
The city will now move forward with planning for the moratorium, which cannot go into effect until the 45-day period is completed.
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