Pittsburgh loses appeal of strip club approval

Lebanon Daily News: “The Commonwealth Court has refused the city of Pittsburgh’s request to overturn a county judge’s approval of a strip club in the city’s West End neighborhood.” |

Marquise Investment, Inc. v. City of Pittsburgh, No. 2507 C.D. 2009 (Dec. 30, 2010)

The City of Pittsburgh  and Pittsburgh City Council (collectively, the City) appeal the November 23, 2009 order of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County (trial court) granting the conditional use application filed by Marquise Investment, Inc. (Marquise).  The issue now before the Court is: whether the burden of proving that there was no harm to the health, safety and welfare of the community shifted back to Marquise (1) where medical professionals testified that the location of a proposed adult cabaret would adversely affect the recovery of the members of a nearby social club for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts; and/or, (2) where community members provided significant testimony regarding existing traffic problems.  For the reasons that follow, we affirm the order of the trial court.

The court spent a substantial amount of time reviewing the statutory allocation of the burden of proof as to various kinds of evidence in the case.  In the final analysis, it found that the city simply failed to meet its burdens of proof.  Two facts are worthy of special mention.  One of the objections against the sexually oriented business (SOB) was that it would be located next to a treatment center for recovering alcoholics.  The SOB presented evidence that it was not seeking an alcohol license at the current time so the court largely rejected concerns about locating near the recovery center.  On the traffic issue, the court did not accept arguments that the SOB would have an adverse impact especially in light of the fact that it would be operating in the late night and early morning hours.