BROADVIEW, IL — Better increased taxes than an all-hours strip club — especially one that serves liquor. Such appears to be the opinion of at least one mayor and up to 150 citizens who believe they would be negatively affected by the latter if it moves into the industrial area of their town.”I am not in favor of this business in our community,” the Chicago Tribute quotes Mayor Henry Vicenik as saying during a recent Zoning Board of Appeals meeting last week.
The board appeared to agree with him, since it voted unanimously against allowing developer Joseph Inovskis to have alcohol available to the patrons of his proposed all-hours club, Chicago Joe’s Tea Room.
The decision upholds village law forbidding the sale of alcohol in an adult zoned business, but it is unknown whether the denial of the special-use permit will deter Inovskis from building his Tea Room in an industrial area of Broadview, overlooking the Eisenhower Expressway.
Although 200 people are said to have attended the meeting, the Tribune does not indicate how the 50 individuals who did not applaud upon hearing the decision felt about the issue.
It does, however, indicate that Mayor Vicenik expects the prospect of a dry strip club to discourage Inovskis from making his strip club a reality. As Vicenik is said to see it, the club can’t open if there are any day-care facilities in the area and parking could be a problem for employees and customers.
Vicenik further indicated that any future interest from exotic dance clubs keen to bring their tax revenues into the employment disadvantaged village would be likewise rebuffed.
When Inovskis initially pitched his idea for an all-night dance club, he indicated that it was his intention to see the business take a place as a civic and charitable participant in the local community, generating about $100,000 in annual sales tax revenue for the village, which numbers approximately 8,500 and is facing a funding shortfall of at least $1.7 million. Vicenik, who says he’s considering tax increases to cover the ever-increasing budget crunch, laid off police officers, firefighters, and Building and Public Works Department employees in June, enraging residents, who rejected increased sales and property taxes the following November.
The residents’ anti-tax/anti-layoff rage did not apparently make the majority of those who attended last Wednesday’s board meeting any more enthusiastic about having a strip club help bail them out, however. Westchester Village President Paul Gattuso, whose village would have the proposed club near its eastern border and just behind his home, was enthusiastic about the permit denial, stating, “I don’t think it’s right for the kids to live next to a strip joint.”
Broadview Police Chief Ray Pelletier had begged the board to deny the permit, insisting that his dwindling force would be unable to keep up with the criminal activity he assumed the club would attract. Others who spoke out against the club worried that property values would fall, traffic congestion would result, and children would be exposed to inappropriate role models.
