Only two private parties with exotic dancers have been held in the west basement of the Dead Goat saloon.
But those dance performances have inflamed an already heated and long-standing dispute between the saloon's owner, Salt Lake City and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
A hearing examiner for the city on Tuesday heard testimony for more than four hours on whether the saloon, now often referred to as the Crazy Goat, is or is not 165 feet from a gateway corridor. If so, the strip club's license can be taken away. If not, litigation over related matters will continue in 3rd District Court, where the LDS Church also is a participant.
Attorney John Cawley, who is not on the city payroll but is hired periodically to work as a hearing examiner, heard sworn testimony from six witnesses and announced he wanted more time to make a decision.
Among other things, Cawley wants to investigate city ordinances and review what a district court judge said regarding the city's role in this fairly narrow aspect of the larger fight over the saloon.
"I don't want to make a decision off the top of my head," Cawley said. "We're quite frankly talking about somebody's employment, so to speak."
Cawley, who gave no date as to when he would release his decision, said he was especially concerned about an argument advanced by the city that the distance from the club to a gateway corridor could be measured underground as well as on ground level.
"That's a real property issue," he said.
Salt Lake City forbids sexually oriented businesses from operating within a certain distance of protected land uses such as schools, churches or, as in this specific case, a gateway corridor, namely the West Temple Gateway Corridor. Daniel Darger, the saloon's co-owner and lawyer, said when he applied for a sexually oriented business license to add striptease entertainment to the financially failing blues club, various city officials knew or should have known the club had a basement stage. That was in addition to a new stage he built upstairs specifically for semi-nude dancers.
Darger's interpretation of city ordinances is that a sexually oriented business license applies to the entire premises. He also argued that the downstairs stage cannot be interpreted as being closer than 165 feet from a gateway corridor because it's in the basement. The law keeping such businesses away from protected land uses is intended to keep others who don't favor such activities from having to look at them — but they can't be offended if they can't see it, he said.
He contends the city should measure the Dead Goat from its front door to the gateway corridor on ground level, which would put it 171 feet away.
"The gateway corridor doesn't go through the ground to the center of the Earth," he said.
But Salt Lake City Attorney Ed Ruttan said significant changes have been made to the club since it obtained its sexually oriented business license — changes that put it in violation of the ordinance. The downstairs stage has been raised, a railing has been added and some other modifications have been made without benefit of a building permit, he said.
The original agreement when the license was issued was that none of the sexually oriented business activities would be closer than 165 feet from the gateway, he said.
"That is not what turned out to be the case," Ruttan said. "That is not authorized under the license."
Ruttan said if the Goat keeps its upstairs stage for exotic dancers and uses the basement stage for bands, there would be no basis for the city to revoke the club's license.
E-mail: lindat@desnews.com