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Packed Council Meeting Leads To National Harbor Compromise
Strip Club Regulations
Amid the excitement of the Gaylord hearing, it was almost possible to overlook another item of interest at last week's council meeting -- the last scheduled until September.
The council voted to adopt strict new regulations for strip clubs, requiring clubs and exotic dancers to pay for a county license and forbidding dancers to get within six feet of patrons. It also makes tipping illegal in clubs. Clubs will have to pay $650 a year for a county license; dancers and managers will each have to pay $200 annually for a personal license.
  Judith Lynne Hanna (Courtesy Of Judith Hanna - Courtesy Of Judith Hanna) |
The rules are similar to those the county adopted in 2003 but then withdrew after clubs sued the county, alleging the rules violated operators' First Amendment rights.
The licensing requirements are believed to be the first of their kind in Maryland and across the Washington region. Council members said they think cracking down on the clubs will improve the county's image, curb crime and encourage other kinds of businesses to flourish along corridors now home to the late-night establishments.
"It wouldn't break my heart if it shut down most of the clubs in the county," council member Thomas R. Hendershot (D-New Carrollton) said in an interview. Hendershot had pushed for the regulations. "I would consider it a major victory to rid our county of those kinds of establishments."
County officials said they realize clubs might sue again. The council was addressed both by supporters and opponents of the new regulations. According to Judith Lynne Hanna , a senior research scholar in the department of dance at the University of Maryland and an expert witness who has testified about adult entertainment nationwide, the rules restrict freedom of expression and discriminate against exotic dancers.
"Requiring a license to engage in dance is a prior restraint on expression that is protected by the First Amendment, and it is also a tax on expression," she told the council, according to a copy of her remarks. "The bill's stigmatizing treatment of dancers (implying most are immoral, dirty, criminal, contagious or inferior) appears in some respects similar to white treatment of blacks during slavery and segregation."
Council members said they have done extensive documentation of the ill effects of adult clubs on the community, making them more confident the rules will stand up in court if challenged.
Club owners and dancers now have about two months to get the license. If they don't, they can face a misdemeanor charge and jail time.
