nothin Vegas-Stye Strip Club Proposal Has An Opponent | New Haven Independent

Vegas-Stye Strip Club Proposal Has An Opponent

Markeshia Ricks Photo

Joseph Villano addresses City Plan commissioners.

The owner of a local sign-making company does not want a proposed Las Vegas-style” strip club to become his neighbor. And he stopped by the City Plan Commission to say so.

The owner, Joseph Villano, is the CEO of J. Villano Sign Co., which has been on East Street for decades. He’s also a member of the North Haven Zoning Board of Appeals, and he said, couldn’t make the Tuesday night New Haven Board of Zoning’s public hearing at which the owner of the soon-to-close Scores strip club sought needed permissions to open an adult cabaret” called Planet Venus on 203 Wallace Street. (Read more about that here.) Only supporters of the plan spoke at that zoninghearing.

The proposed location for the club abuts Villano’s business. Villano sought to lodge his complaint somewhere, so he showed up to the City Plan Commission’s two-hour meeting at City Hall Wednesday night and waited two hours to register his opinion.

Villano told commissioners that clubs owners have been applying and withdrawing their application for the past eight months, effectively wearing down the people who might oppose it. He said that was likely why the only people who showed up to Tuesday’s BZA meeting were supporters organized by the proposed club’s owners. The proposed club operator would be Scores owner Peter Forchetti..

I’m just here to oppose it because it’s in my backyard,” Villano told the City Plan commissioners. It’s right next to an alcohol clinic. You would be putting a liquor place that has women dancing at night next to an alcohol clinic.”

Unfortunately for Villano, the City Plan Commission was tasked with only considering an advisory decision about whether or not the coastal site plan for the proposed Vegas-style club meets all applicable criteria. The commissioners ultimately decided that the applicants did meet the criteria.

But they allowed Villano to have his say. The BZA will decide next month whether to approve the owner’s requested zoning relief.

The club owners would have to apply and come back to the City Plan Commission for an actual decision on the merits of a site plan and coastal site plan. City Plan staff has said the owners have not yet made an application to the commission. That’s, of course, pending they get that far.

It’s purely technical,” City Plan Commission Chairman Ed Mattison said to Villano. It doesn’t go to the merits tonight. It’s not whether to approve this, or whether the water-intensive use is of benefit or not.”

Everything that’s in this zone has to have a water permit from us,” he added. That doesn’t mean the BZA or Board of Aldermen has to approve anything.”

Villano said there is, in fact, a problem with water given that there are wells on the property. He added that there is no parking.

All of those things are true,” Mattison said, but couldn’t be factored into the decision before the commission Wednesday. We will play a large part in the ultimate decision.”

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