Strip club still before commission

MINDEN - Douglas County commissioners promised Thursday to bring any future meetings about a proposed topless bar to Stateline, where the issue has raised considerable controversy.

Club owner Tamara Laub had requested her proposal not be discussed at Thursday's commissioner meeting, bringing some respite to opponents.

Pastor Sam Worley of the Tahoe Community Church said he was grateful the proposal was dropped from the agenda.

"I am relieved, but not relaxed," Worley said. "Our community has done well in opposing the location of this proposed cabaret discotheque. I urge them to remain alert."

Laub is seeking a cabaret discotheque license, which would allow topless dancing at her proposed Club Eden on Lower Kingsbury Grade. The board referred Laub to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, which advised her to obtain a traffic study before it could discuss her proposal.

Although no law prohibits a topless bar from the Kingsbury area, Steve Teshara, executive director of the Lake Tahoe Gaming Alliance, said it's not necessarily permissible to open the club.

"I don't think (Laub) can rely on the community plan to say (the club) is OK," Teshara said. "Cabaret and topless bars weren't part of the TRPA's planning process, because (the bars) typically did not exist."

Teshara, like many other residents, is worried about problems that could arise from placing a topless nightclub in a residential area.

Annie Rees of Zephyr Cove said she has concerns about security outside of the club because it is close to a park, church and preschool.

"If you have a business that won't negatively impact your neighbors, then go for it," Rees said. "I don't care about what's going on inside. I want to know how (the club) will affect my daughter when she goes to the 7-Eleven next door. "

Carolyn Manchester, Kingsbury Center Mobile Home Park manager, is also concerned with security, parking and access, because club patrons would use the same driveway as the mobile home park.

"We have senior citizens and women who are concerned," Manchester said. "We have to drive in and out past this bar. There's no way we can avoid it.

"I don't think the county commissioners would want this bar next to their houses," Manchester added. "They don't stop and think about the people it's affecting. Maybe it's time for them to make a law that prohibits it."

Laub owns a similar establishment named Fantasy Girls on East Fourth Street in Reno. Although the Nevada Better Business Bureau had no record of complaints, Rees, who owns a bail bond shop in Reno, said Fantasy Girls is in a much different area than the proposed Club Eden.

Rees said there is not a house within four blocks of the Reno club.