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LOU CHIBBARO J
Friday, February 17, 2006
Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate Vincent Orange, who currently serves on the District’s Council, is continuing a campaign to block adult gay entertainment businesses from moving into Ward 5, the area of the city that he represents.
Although Orange’s effort has yet to gain resonance among his rivals in the mayoral race, the possible relocation of the gay businesses in Ward 5 has become a hot-button issue in the multi-candidate contest for the Ward 5 Council seat that Orange must give up to run for mayor.
Three declared candidates for the Ward 5 seat and a community activist expected to enter the race say they oppose allowing the gay entertainment businesses to move into the ward because of the adult nature of the clubs, not because of the clubs’ gay clientele.
Among those opposing the clubs is Harry Thomas Jr., son of the late Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Sr. Thomas has yet to declare his candidacy, but is expected to do so shortly. Others are Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Franklin Wilds, and civic activists Audrey Ray, Regina James and Raenelle Zapata.
Owners of the adult gay entertainment clubs, now located on O Street, S.E., between South Capitol and Half streets, have been looking at Ward 5 for possible relocation sites because the ward is home to most of the city’s industrial and warehouse zones.
Nowhere to go
Representatives of the clubs have said they prefer to move into an industrial or warehouse area to avoid infringing upon residential communities. But the clubs recently discovered that current city zoning regulations prevent them from moving anywhere other than the downtown business district.
Excessively high rental rates and nearby residential buildings have prompted them to rule out the downtown area as an option, club owners said.
Club owners and supporters in the gay community said the only option left to save the clubs from becoming extinct is to petition the city to change the zoning laws.
The city’s Home Rule Charter, which Congress wrote in the early 1970s, created an independent D.C. Zoning Commission as the sole entity to write or change zoning laws and regulations. The D.C. Council, which writes all other laws, has no authority to interfere in the zoning process under provisions of the charter.
Gay D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham, who represents Ward 1, has joined gay activists in calling on the Zoning Commission to make the necessary changes to allow the gay clubs to move into other warehouse or industrial districts.
Graham and the Gay & Lesbian Activists Alliance wrote letters last week to D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams urging him to petition the commission to make the changes.
Under the Home Rule Charter, the mayor appoints three of the commission’s five members. The U.S. Secretary of the Interior and Architect of the U.S. Capitol appoint the other two commission members.
Williams has said he supports efforts to find a new location for the gay clubs, and he has directed the city’s property management office to help the club owners in their search. He has yet to respond to the request by Graham and GLAA that he formally petition the Zoning Commission for a change in the zoning laws.
Rick Rosendall, spokesperson for the GLAA, said Orange appeared to be using the gay businesses as an election campaign ploy to stir up interest in his race for mayor. Rosendall criticized Orange’s attempt to block the businesses from moving anywhere in Ward 5, even in areas far from residential communities.
"It’s very sleazy for him to pull this at this time," said Rosendall. "He is aware that his ward has more industrial areas than any other ward. He is being unreasonable."
Mayoral contenders back O Street clubs’ relocation
Each of the five candidates running for mayor also expressed general support for allowing the displaced gay businesses to move. But the candidates expressed their views last year, before news surfaced about the need to change local zoning laws.
Mayoral contenders Adrian Fenty, the Ward 4 councilmember, and Marie Johns were the only mayoral candidates to respond to a Blade inquiry this week about their position on a zoning law change to allow the clubs to move.
"I definitely support it," Fenty said.
"There is no doubt that the Zoning Commission must make the necessary changes," he said. "This is a big city. I would be surprised if there weren’t appropriate places in many parts of the city for these clubs to move."
Orange made his position known at a Ward 5 community meeting that he called last month to promote opposition to allowing the gay businesses to move into his ward. Orange told the meeting, held in a Baptist church, that the adult gay businesses would interfere with the type of economic development that he and other community leaders are promoting in the ward.
Mayoral candidate Johns, former telecommunications executive, said she would call on the Zoning Commission to take up the issue and hand down a decision on whether the zoning law should be changed. But Johns said she would need more information on the matter before she could giver her support for such a change.
"It’s a tough decision," Johns said. "These are adult businesses, and I understand that we have to be careful about where they move."
Noting that real estate development is rapidly encroaching on the city’s few remaining industrial sections, Johns said there no longer may be places left in the city for the O Street businesses.
"It may be a reality that their lifecycle is coming to an end," she said.
Mayoral contender and D.C. Council chair Linda Cropp did not respond to telephone calls by press time, nor did candidate Michael Brown.
Laws in conflict
During his Ward 5 community meeting, Orange expressed strong opposition to a bill proposed by gay D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham that called for easing liquor law restrictions to enable some of the O Street businesses to move to new locations.
Graham’s bill would have allowed all businesses with liquor licenses that are expected to be displaced by the baseball stadium to move to a zone in other parts of the city that are zoned identical to the one in which they are now located. Graham withdrew his bill after learning that the more restrictive zoning law would override the liquor law change he proposed, making his bill unenforceable.
An attorney representing one of the O Street clubs has since argued that the zoning law restriction could be interpreted to allow nude dancing as long as no sexual activity takes place. The showing of adult X-rated videos or films or the sale of sexually explicit magazines or books by two of the O Street businesses would not meet the restrictions under the zoning law, said attorney Andrew Kline. Those businesses could not move without a zoning law change, Kline said.
"I would be opposed to this type of business regardless of the type of customers it caters to," said Ward 5 Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Kathy Henderson.
Henderson said the Ward 5 opposition to the businesses was not based on anti-gay prejudice.
Opposition surfaced last month after Orange discovered that gay business owner Bob Siegel planned to buy a vacant warehouse in Ivy City and intended to invite one or more of the O Street gay clubs to move there. The warehouse on Mount Olivet Road near West Virginia Avenue, N.E., is near an elementary school, apartment buildings and two youth centers, according to Henderson and others who attended Orange’s community meeting.
Siegel, who attended the meeting, promised to operate the businesses in a way that would not infringe on the neighborhood.
But angry participants at the meeting shouted their opposition. Some said such businesses would have a negative impact on neighborhood children.
Siegel could not be reached this week to determine whether he still plans to buy the warehouse.
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