GILROY
City planners have recommended the approval of Gilroy’s first topless bar with a handful of conditions, and the police chief and planning commissioners who must approve the permit said they won’t stand in the way as long as the applicant and his business plan adhere to the law.
“I’m bound by the law, not public opinion,” Gilroy Police Chief Denise Turner said. “It may not be something the public wants, but legally we can’t object to it if it complies with the law.”
That’s good news for Ante Bilic, the Saratoga-based club owner who wants to turn El Amigo Restaurant just north of the Gilroy Premium Outlets on San Ysidro Avenue into his latest venue: Showgirls. The building sits in a commercial zone that allows strip clubs if the planning commission and police chief agree. The commission will meet Jan. 15 to review Bilic’s plans for a 56-seat club with two catwalks, a wrap-around bar, a main stage for topless dancing, six lap dance booths, a pool table and an outdoor patio.
If the body approves Bilic’s permit, Chief Turner will then review it. She will also work with the local Alcohol Beverage Control Committee and the city’s attorney to decide whether Bilic can serve up booze along with the show. City code allows both in commercial zones with separate permits, but Sgt. Kurt Ashley said the city attorney was reviewing this unprecedented request just to be safe.
As for security in general, both police and residents have expressed concern.
“I think it would make for more crime,” Norma Jamies, the mother of a teenager, said. “Kids will find a way to get in. There will be fights, more drinking. It’s not a good idea.”
For Bilic to receive his permit, Chief Turner and the planning department have already required that he have a manager on site at all times with a security plan and ample lighting inside and out. Staff has also barred Bilic from staying open past 1 a.m. or open before 8 a.m., and his potential permit will expire before its three-year life span if the city receives complaints about drugs, prostitution or noise and if the city council acts on those complaints.
Thirteen years ago, four dancers at the Kit Kat Club – which Bilic runs in Sunnyvale along with Paul & Harveys bar, Tarragon restaurant and Sporty’s Bikini Bar – pleaded guilty to performing lewd sexual acts in public. Police searched Bilic’s property in connection with the sting, but they never charged him with a crime, and the city never revoked his permit, according to public records and his lawyer. Bilic, who has declined to comment, currently faces a class-action lawsuit filed by two dancers who claim he did not pay them properly, but his lawyer said he has beaten similar suits in the past and will prevail again. Gilroy requires a clean permit and legal history to open an adult business.
As for alcohol, Bilic also holds licenses for his various businesses, with the exception of the Kit Kat Club. The only blemish on his record appears in the ABC file on Bilic Enterprises, a company registered to Bilic that runs Tarragon. The record shows he violated his license terms last July for operating a “disorderly premises” and “creating conditions contrary to public welfare and morals.”
Chief Turner remembers these sorts of problems from her days at the Shoreline Police Department outside of Seattle, WA. A strip club there called Sugar’s caused officers plenty of headaches, she said, and police have repeatedly raided the club and made arrests, according to Turner and news reports. But despite her experience with Sugar’s, Turner – who said she does not patronize strip clubs – said she remains open to the idea of a well-behaved club in Gilroy.
Despite BIlic’s clean record, though, residents still wince at the idea of strippers in a strip mall and glassy-eyed men wambling out of the club.
“I’ve got a baby. If I take my kid to the outlets, I don’t want him to see strippers,” Rico Fernandez, 21, said. “I’m all for (a club), but throw it next to Stubby’s or another bar. Have it for the locals.”
Roy Lopez, 19, agreed.
“I don’t like the location, but I’m very excited,” he said. “You can’t do anything these days without getting into trouble. It would be something to keep us out of trouble.”
But City Planner Melissa Durkin and Planning Division Manager Bill Faus wrote in their staff report, “The adult cabaret will fit harmoniously with the surrounding land uses and will not create a nuisance, because the surrounding uses operate primarily in the day time, and do not cater to sensitive clientele, such as children.”
Not so, said Roy Martinez, a supervisor and manager at the Home Depot that sits in the same parking lot as El Amigo. He told the Dispatch that the home improvement store already has to deal with day laborers lingering in the parking lot – adding a spot for more men to congregate – and drink – will only hurt business, he said.
But these are assumptions, and city officials and some residents argue the city should not presume Bilic’s club will fester with debauchery. Mayor Al Pinheiro, who will consider the application along with the full council if the planning commission denies Bilic’s permit and he appeals that decision, has said the city should allow Bilic to practice his business freely if, and only if, he obeys local laws and regulations that previously elected councils have passed.
One of those rules concerns the transfer of El Amigo’s alcohol license to Showgirls. El Amigo Owner Huberto Acevedo may transfer his license to Bilic with ABC approval, but there are no guarantees.
“Neither the transferor nor the transferee should assume that the license will be transferred on a particular date, or at all, merely because the application has been filed,” reads the ABC’s Web site. “ABC may deny the application, or protests or accusations may be filed which may result in delay or denial of the transfer.”
