CENTRAL CITY - At their meeting on August 19, 2025, the Central City Council in a 3-2 vote rejected updates to the City of Central Municipal Code concerning business licenses for sexually oriented businesses (SOB).

 Zane Plsek and Marcia Enloe voted in favor of the updates, while Jeremy Fey, Chuck Spencer, and Todd Williams voted against them [Ordinance 25-04].

The result of the vote is that the current ordinance remains active and unchanged.

The vote was preceded by a presentation from Attorney Scott Bergthold on regulating the negative secondary impacts of sexually oriented businesses.

Bergthold outlined five areas of negative impacts: 1) Negative impacts on surrounding property, 2) Increases in personal and property crimes, 3) Illicit sexual activity and the potential spread of diseases, 4) Increased drug use and trafficking, and 5) Litter and blight impacts.

These negative secondary impacts justified licensing and conduct restrictions and regulating hours.

Bergthold outlined cases and legal precedents for regulating the negative secondary impacts of SOBs and discussed the distinctions between regulating SOBs with land use codes or with licensing requirements.

Discussion of the ordinance by council members before the vote involved questions about the future direction of Central City and whether current regulations are being enforced.

Discussion

Public comments regarding the defeat of Ordinance 25-04 included that of RCI CEO Eric Langan, who said that there had been no police calls in the ten weeks that Rick’s Cabaret & Steakhouse, an SOB, had been open, so no negative secondary impacts.

Deb Ray seemed flabbergasted that Council failed to heed the wishes of residents not to have SOBs on Main Street.

Rebecca Blondo asked that the current ordinance be enforced regarding Rick’s Cabaret and asked that council members explain their “no” votes.

During council member comments, Aldermen Spencer and Williams cited government overreach as reasons for voting no on 25-04, but didn’t identify which specific updates constituted an overreach.

Mayor Fey apologized for being bullied into recusing himself in the 2024 votes on the matter, saying he had no financial conflict of interest and pledged to bring the issue to a final conclusion soon.

Other business

In other business, Council unanimously approved a resolution amending the City’s fee schedule (25-29), unanimously approved a lease agreement for 103 Eureka Street (25-07), and unanimously approved a resolution for new and replacement sidewalks to be natural grey concrete with a broom brush (25-30).

Prior to going into executive session, Alderman Plsek moved to have Mayor Fey recused from the discussion but didn’t get a second, so the motion died.

The agenda information packet regarding the August 19, 2025, meeting is available at centralcity.colorado.gov/meetings. Click on the Agenda and Packet link for the August 19 to find slides of Bergthold’s presentation.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Central City Council will be on September 2, 2025, at 6 p.m. in council chambers.

In the Central City Council article in the August 21 issue, we stated that Rick's Cabaret & Steakhouse was a sexually-oriented business (SOB). According to Central City's City Clerk Reba Bechtel, Rick's Cabaret & Steakhouse's business license application description is filed under "club and restaurant." At this time they have not submitted an application for a SOB in Central City. That is a separate application.  We apologize for this error.