Moncton's Night Magic/Mint down to its last possible appeal to remain a Strip Club

[Guest W***ledi*Time]

Brent Mazerolle reports for the Times & Transcript, 11 Dec 2009

(http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/front/article/886531):

After more than a dozen contentious years and perhaps the most memorable meeting in the history of Canada's oldest planning commission, it looks as though Moncton High School will no longer have a strip club for a neighbour.

 

The Greater Moncton Planning District Commission, the City of Moncton and the Province of New Brunswick have closed all the legal doors on the former Night Magic nightclub except for one.

 

Nando Speranza came to the Nov. 25 meeting of the Greater Moncton Planning Commission armed with photographs of scantily clad women, and even brought some of his employees to testify exotic dancing had resumed within the necessary 10-month period for the business to retain its non-conforming rights, but the commissioners were not convinced.

 

Those who might recall public morality court cases of a half-century ago might be confused that a club owner was before a quasi-judicial body arguing that stripping was happening in his club rather than the other way around, so here's the background.

 

Adult entertainment at 151 Mountain Rd. dates back to about 1996, when the community, the city council and provincial government of the day were caught by surprise by the opening of a bar called Bikini Beach. The council of the day immediately moved to change its zoning bylaws to prevent adult entertainment in other locations where the council felt it was inappropriate, but Bikini Beach was by then grandfathered, or in the parlance of the province's Community Planning Act, had non-conforming rights.

 

To further illustrate the purpose of granting non-conforming rights in some cases, a day care or perhaps a gas station might exist in a zone where such uses are no longer allowed, but enjoy the right to continue operation because they were there before the zone was changed. It was the same for Bikini Beach and then Night Magic as it came to be known, so long as they continued operating and met the legal requirements for adult entertainment laid out by their provincial liquor licences.

 

But then a fire on Sept. 27, 2008 disrupted Night Magic's ability to continue operating without interruption. The provincial Community Planning Act anticipates such situations, giving non-conforming businesses a grace period of 10 months to resume operations without losing their rights. The act dictates, however, that non-conforming rights can only continue if the building has suffered less than 50 per cent damage.

 

That was a lively debate last year at this time, with the planning commission eventually determining the Night Magic building had suffered less than 50 per cent damage, though it acknowledged difficulty in determining the intent of the Act. For instance, did the 50 per cent figure apply to a dollar value, or the amount of a building damaged? And if the latter, how do you compare, say, a collapsed roof in one section with smoke and water damage throughout?

 

Nevertheless, the GMPDC's Dec. 17, 2008 ruling gave Speranza 10 months to get back in the adult entertainment business. In a memorable moment of acting on principle, planning commissioner Lynn Murray, who had before retirement been principal of Moncton High School and a staunch opponent of Speranza locating his business across the street, spoke up to suggest the commission give the businessman some latitude, given that his business had been catastrophically disrupted through no fault of his own.

 

The City of Moncton didn't see it that way. It appealed the decision to the province's Assessment and Planning Appeals board, arguing the "50 per cent damage" measure was vague, but more to the point that the spirit of the Planning Act surely didn't support making strippers and public school students neighbours, regardless of what the letter of the law might be. The city lost that appeal in October, but asked the planning commission to look at whether the business had resumed adult entertainment within the 10 months.

 

At the most recent planning commission meeting, Speranza provided evidence, including the photographs and dancers' testimonies, that the club re-opened as Mint on July 22, five days before the 10-month deadline.

 

However, the Department of Public Safety didn't grant a liquor licence to the club until nine days later, and then it was only a lounge licence allowing live entertainment that was not "adult entertainment." Under the licence, the club can host disc jockeys and live musicians, but no "exotic activities."

 

While the club still bears a sign outside calling it an "Exotic Roadhouse," a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Safety said Wednesday there has been no change to the club's licence.

At this point, there's a bit of a chicken-and-egg circle of logic at work.

 

Speranza maintains that the re-opening on July 22 was liquor-free because the licence hadn't been issued yet. However, the province says you can't offer exotic entertainment without an adult entertainment liquor licence.

 

Further, the planning commission used the lack of an adult entertainment licence as grounds for disallowing the argument the non-conforming activities could have resumed on July 22.

 

Meanwhile, the province will never grant an exotic liquor licence now that the land is no longer zoned for such activity, unless of course Speranza wins an appeal.

 

Yesterday, the Assessments and Planning Appeals board would neither "confirm nor deny" whether an appeal had been launched, arguing it is not public information.

 

Nando Speranza declined an invitation to comment for this story.

Mayor George LeBlanc welcomed the ruling of the planning commission and reiterated the city's position on behalf of council that the question of non-conforming rights "deserved another look."

 

He conceded some would argue the misfortune of suffering a fire at what is a legal business under New Brunswick laws might merit some sort of exception, but he made no apologies and pointed to the bigger social issues.

 

"I don't believe, and I think I can speak for council, this was appropriate next to a school, period."

 

He also argued the new rebuilt club had been misrepresented to the city at the building permit stage. "They told us they were not going to operate this kind of business."

 

LeBlanc said "we as a city are bound by rules and laws," and acted upon them, adding the club and its owner have had the full benefit of the law in the process.

 

[andydg 110]

has anyone been to this club? How is it?

[Amelia Fox 9064]

Awh!

Isn't that a shame. There's now what three strip clubs in the Maritimes? Perhaps a good business adventure? Or a money pit.. Lol.

[steveyK 4311]

Funny about that club though, I was in there a couple of years ago when it had just re-opened, and they didn't have a liquor (or likker?) licence yet so they served energy drinks (go figure) and near beer...hahaha shame its gone tho :( I guess its just Angies in Moncton, or someone from here on cerb :)

[Amelia Fox 9064]

A good strip club with nice looking talent would be ideal to have in NB. Preferably Moncton,but I would also say Fredericton needs something there too.