SANDY — Are bikini-clad hair stylists lowering community standards and promoting moral degradation in Sandy?
The Sandy City Council thinks so.
Bikini Cuts, a hair salon featuring stylists in bikinis, opened for business two months ago at 10295 S. 1300 East — across the street and a block away from Eastmont Middle School.
Residents flooded the City Council meeting two weeks ago to complain, and the council responded Tuesday by passing a resolution "promoting a child-appropriate standard" in Sandy.
In addition, the city has hired an independent attorney to research its ordinances and recommend ways the city can tighten them to possibly prevent such businesses from opening their doors in Sandy in the future.
"This resolution is really just more of a moral message," said Sandy City Council chairman Dennis Tenney. "We'd like for it to have more teeth in it, but unfortunately it's difficult to do that at this time.
"Bikini Cuts has certainly been a major contributor to this resolution being passed because we've already had some substantial activity, a lot of it of a negative nature, as far as teenagers and so forth, and it's obviously drawn a lot of expressions of concern from parents and other citizens."
Tenney said the city has received reports of middle-school boys "daring each other to go by and look in the window, and that's just encouraging prurient behavior and enticement, and that's something we don't need."
He said Bikini Cuts' Web site, www.bikinicuts.com, makes it "very clear what their subliminal message is, it's unmistakable, and that is that sex sells."
The resolution, similar to one passed by the city of Bountiful last year, was passed on a 7-0 council vote.
It states Sandy endorses "a community standard that reflects and encourages a wholesome environment for children and families." It "strongly encourages" businesses, schools and public institutions to adopt "child-appropriate standards" but does not define "child-appropriate."
The resolution then says the city wants residents to be aware of "this standard and to promote it for the good of the entire community, particularly for its future — our children."
Asked if the goal of council members is to kick Bikini Cuts out of town, Tenney said, "That's a matter of opinion. . . . The ultimate goal, I believe, is to get this business, to encourage them of their own free will, to put more clothing on their employees and put much less emphasis on sex and the prurient nature of their dress standards and focus more on cutting hair."
Heather Gibson, assistant manager of Bikini Cuts, says no one has picketed the business, but she has heard rumors that something along those lines could be forthcoming.
Gibson and the other stylists, however, don't see what the fuss is all about.
"You can't even see in the windows unless you push your face up to it," Gibson said, adding that the stylists wear normal bikini bathing suits while giving $25 haircuts. "Actually, they're pretty covered up. There's nothing showing — cleavage, but you can see that every week at the mall."
Gibson said about 30 percent of the salon's customers are female. And the publicity generated by residents' complaints has resulted in increased business, she said.
Owner Bethany Prince said she has plans to open as many as five more Bikini Cuts around the Salt Lake Valley in the next year.
Tenney said city staff is working with Bikini Cuts to see if the business would be willing to install blinds, making it more difficult for anyone to view bikini-clad stylists from the outside.
In Bountiful, the resolution was passed primarily with the intent of getting local businesses to place colored plastic on top of their magazines to hide revealing covers.
E-mail: zman@desnews.com