From The Legal Intelligencer:

The push to bring to Philadelphia one of the most well-recognized names in the strip club business has been headed off yet again, this time by a city common pleas judge.

Deferring to the zoning board’s discretion, Judge Gary S. Glazer concluded that there was enough adverse evidence presented during the board hearings concerning a Scores branch in Philadelphia to warrant the board’s decision not to grant a certificate to local developers linked to the New York-based club.

Sigh. What will the people of Philadelphia do now when they want to go to a Disney-fied titty bar where you only get paid attention to if you’re a white male over 50, and you’re forced to treat strippers like (gasp) artists?
Oh, that’s right, you can just go to Delilah’s six blocks to the east. My bad.

After the jump, for you legal eagle types, the rest of the article.

Scores Club Shut Out
Of Philadelphia Again

Gina Passarella

10-17-2006

The push to bring to Philadelphia one of the most well-recognized names in the strip club business has been headed off yet again, this time by a city common pleas judge.

Deferring to the zoning board’s discretion, Judge Gary S. Glazer concluded that there was enough adverse evidence presented during the board hearings concerning a Scores branch in Philadelphia to warrant the board’s decision not to grant a certificate to local developers linked to the New York-based club.

“The board’s findings of fact and conclusions of law are contained in a 19-page document that summarizes the three hearings regarding [the developers'] request for a certificate,” Glazer wrote in his opinion in SPH Associates v. Zoning Board of Adjustment. “The are 338 pages of transcript testimony and additional exhibits. Furthermore, this court may not substitute its own judgment for that of the board. The board is only required to set forth sufficient facts and reasons to show that its actions are not arbitrary.”

Glazer noted that the board’s decision against the Scores-friendly developers were based on several factors, in particular: lack of proper on-site parking; public safety and security concerns; and a potentially negative impact on the residential-minded redevelopment efforts targeting the area immediately surrounding the proposed site on North Sixth Street at Spring Garden Street.

Stanley Krakower of Krakower & Mason in Philadelphia, who has represented local civic associations opposed to a Scores in the neighborhood, praised Glazer’s decision.

“A club like a strip club, or whatever you want to call it, has to be careful about where it wants to go,” Krakower said. “You can’t just plunk something down that might have been OK 20 years ago and think that’s OK now. ”

While there are other areas of the city where a Scores might be welcome, Krakower said, “Not in Northern Liberties or Old City. Not now.”

During a hearing before Glazer last week, Krakower was joined in arguing in support of the board’s decision by city law department Senior Attorney Cheryl Gaston. A call to the law department yesterday afternoon seeking comment was not immediately returned.

SPH Associates’ attorney in the case has been Joseph Beller of Beller Stouffer & Orphanides in Philadelphia; he could not immediately be reached for comment.

From the outset of the common pleas appeal process, the deck appeared stacked against Scores.

As Glazer pointed out in his opinion, several local politicians – including state Sen. Vincent Fumo and City Councilman Frank DiCicco – have been publicly critical of the possibility of a Scores on North Sixth Street.

And on several occasions during this past Wednesday’s hearing in the matter, Glazer indicated that there are few grounds on which a common pleas judge may reverse a zoning board decision.

At the beginning of his oral argument at that hearing, Beller told Glazer that SPH Associates marks “a classic case for this court to overturn the zoning board.”

“You said that the last case,” Glazer replied dryly.

(Copies of the 16-page opinion in SPH Associates v. Zoning Board of Adjustment, PICS No. 06-1431, are available from The Legal Intelligencer. Please call the Pennsylvania Instant Case Service at 800-276-PICS to order or for information. Some cases are not available until 1 p.m.)

ScoresPhiladelphia: At Least We’ve Still Got This Totally Faccacta Website
Previously: NoLibs And Scores, Perfect Together

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 17th, 2006 at 2:35 pm.