Strip Club Opens Amid Protests

Pico Rivera residents and owners of the city’s first strip club squared off again Monday when the club was allowed to open after acquiring all of its permits and licenses.

Leaning against the bar of the Imperial Showgirls as customers began to wander inside, owner Glenn Smith, 48, said he was “just glad to be open.”

Outside, a group of about 300 angry residents and city officials booed every person who walked into the club in the 9300 block of Slauson Avenue.

An hour after dancers took the stage, city officials started planning for the future. At a meeting Monday, the City Council voted unanimously to impose a moratorium on future adult businesses and corrected a zoning loophole that allowed Imperial Showgirls to operate in a shopping area.

The moratorium on new adult businesses will remain in effect for at least a year, pending a zoning study by the planning and building department, which would then recommend permanent regulations.

“We had our hands tied on this one,” said Bob Spencer, the city’s spokesman. “It is their constitutional right to be here. We just want to make sure that it is run in a safe manner.”

After receiving its certificate of maximum occupancy Monday, the club was allowed to keep its doors open, ending a two-month legal battle with the city.

The Imperial Showgirls strip club had opened quietly in January. Its location still bears the marquee of a previous business, a billiard parlor.

Residents learned about the nude-dancing club when police shut it down a few days after its Jan. 7 opening because it was operating without permits and within a city zone that did not allow adult-oriented businesses.

The club’s closure was temporary. In a Feb. 19 ruling, U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian said the club could open because it was unconstitutional to not allow a business to operate.

He also voided the city’s zoning ordinance.

Tevrizian also ruled that the club owners had 10 days to get licenses and permits.

On Friday, the club opened briefly, but owners Glenn and LeRoy Smith agreed to close until Monday because they were missing a permit.

The Smiths have been in the adult entertainment industry for about 20 years, own an Imperial Showgirls strip club in Anaheim and are involved with other adult establishments. They bought the 5,000-square-foot Pico Rivera property late last year.

Friday’s planned opening was also accompanied by an “unwelcoming committee” of about 300 residents, religious leaders and city officials, including Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Norwalk), who protested along Slauson Avenue.

“Pico Rivera is a safe city, and it is a good city,” said the Rev. Richard Ochoa, whose church is just a few blocks away from the strip club. “This is going to increase crime in our city.”

The Smiths are eager to start doing business in the area and say they are not looking to hurt the religiously conservative, working-class suburb.

“This is an adult-oriented business, and it is aimed toward adults,” said Glenn Smith.

“You have to be mature about it.”

Still, locals are worried.

“It’s scary,” said Elaine Duarte, a 32-year-old bartender who works less than a block away. “I won’t feel safe working here late at night.”