After a landslide victory, a bill sponsored in the state senate by Sen. Steve Dille went into effect on May 27, regulating the live adult entertainment businesses in Minnesota. Final version of the bill passed the Minnesota House on a 129-1 vote and the Minnesota Senate on a 57-1 vote. The new law was conceived when Dille attended a meeting in Eden Valley last fall regarding the gentleman’s club that had begun operating there. He listened to outraged citizens who felt they had no control over adult businesses being established within their city. Rep. Dean Urdahl of Grove City authored a similar bill in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Eden Valley city officials and police chief Earnie Junker attended meetings of the senate committee on local government. Eden Valley mayor Dan Thielen testified before the committee. Bills going through both the House and Senate had differing language, but that was resolved after their passage. Some of the provisions in the new law are as follows: o A 60-day notice must be made to the city, county, or township before an adult entertainment business can begin operation. o A city, county or township is not required to zone for this type of business if another is located within 50 miles of their border. o An adult entertainment establishment must be at least 500 feet from the nearest residential property and 2,800 feet from a school or church. In many small towns this means there is no place such a business would fit within the city limits. o The adult business cannot open earlier than 10 a.m. nor be open later than 10 p.m. They also must not open on Sunday or legal holidays. o An adult entertainment business cannot be owned or managed by persons convicted of certain crimes for at least three years after discharge from sentence. o Total local control is preserved for those communities that want to be more or less restrictive or do something completely different. The state of Delaware has similar laws concerning the hours of operation for adult-type businesses and was challenged in court. The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld the law saying in essence that those hours of operation gave the business’ clients more than 3,600 hours per year to participate in sexually explicit expressive activity and they did not think the Constitution required more. The court also made clear that the first amendment rights only require that speech, expression and ideas be allowed an adequate forum, not a guaranteed profit. Although Dille is aware that the new law may be challenged in court, he is confident that it will withstand judicial challenge here in Minnesota as well as it did in Delaware. The Garden of Eden Gentlemen’s Club was closed Saturday, June 17, by the Meeker County Sheriff’s Office, assisted by the Eden Valley Police Department, by Writ of Recovery of Premises. Club owner David Redburn reportedly owed thousands of dollars in back rent for the property. Landlord and building owner Fred Ehlert was given the keys once the locks on the building were changed and the property had been inventoried. It was not clear at press time what Ehlert intended to do with the property.
