There aren't any strip clubs outside Yellowstone National Park — yet — but Park County’s draft Development Standards and Regulations (DSR) could pave the way for pole dancing G-strings.
The DSR is being established as a result of the new Park County Land Use Plan. That plan passed earlier this year offers recommendations for county growth, use of land, and environmental and wildlife considerations.
The DSR, which now needs to be rewritten, is designed to be more specific on uses and locations in relation to zoning. It’s going through its first round of consideration, and the draft received recommendation from the Park County Planning and Zoning Commission in November.
Park County Commissioner Chair Dossie Overfield explained to Cowboy State Daily that the commissioners were told by the consulting firm they worked on the regulations that they were required to define “adult entertainment establishment,” “adult cabaret” and “adult movie theater” in the county’s rules.
They also had to determine where these types of businesses could be located to comply with federal law. Similar requirements were also given to define group homes and various energy facilities like wind turbines and solar panels.
“They’re just definitions, it doesn’t mean it’s something we’re going to have,” she said. “It just means if we do, they have to follow these rules.”
The incorporation of these types of businesses into the county development standards drew shock from some people on Park County-based social media pages.
Wapiti resident Scott Weber called this part of the regulations “amazing” and “so absurd.”
“It just shows people with what they came up with, they have no idea what they’re talking about,” Weber said.
Under the DSR, an adult entertainment establishment would include facilities showing less than completely and opaquely covered human genitals, pubic regions, buttocks, anus or female breasts below a point immediately above the top of the areolae; human male genitals in a discernibly turgid state even if completely and opaquely covered.
It would also include sex acts, “normal or perverted” and “actual or simulated,” including intercourse, oral copulation or sodomy; masturbation, actual or simulated.
Prostitution is not legal in Wyoming.
Could It Happen?
Weber said he didn’t support the land use plan developed by the county this past spring, believing it amounted to too much government control over where people can hunt and build homes in relation to wildlife migration corridors. He said he doesn’t expect to give any more consideration to the DSR.
“Nobody took the Land Use Plan to heart and no one is going to follow these either,” he said. “No one is going to follow it. I’m going to keep hunting where I want no matter what they say.”
Overfield said she has no expectations that a strip club or any other type of adult entertainment will come to Park County. If it did, she said she would allow it for consideration and public comment but vote against it.
“We have a lot of things we have to do in Park County, and I don’t think that’s one of them,” she said.
Weber agreed that the commissioners wouldn’t likely approve any of these kinds of establishments, but also said he wouldn’t completely rule it out, mentioning how a few local businesses in Cody like Cassie’s Restaurant and Sleeping Giant Ski Area have gone under lately. He also said there was a consideration at one point to add strippers at the Edelweiss Riverhouse in the tiny town of Clark near the Montana border.
“I don’t think it would really fly in Park County but money talks,” he said.
The regulations would only apply to unincorporated county land and not the municipalities of Cody, Powell or Meeteetse. This county land directly borders Yellowstone.
Under the DSR, an adult entertainment establishment would be allowed in rural areas of Meeteetse and any commercial or industrial-zoned area of the county. Depending on where the business would be located, it would still need either a building/zoning permit or special use permit and Park County approval. They also couldn’t be located within 1,500 feet of a school, day care, group home, church, playground, or other adult entertainment establishment.
Other Uses
The DSR also establishes regulations for solar and wind facilities, both of which are limited in Park County, for now.
It also creates guidelines for wireless communication facilities.
In October, a federal appeals court backed a lower court's order that the Park County Commission must approve the building of a 195-foot cellphone tower in Wapiti.
Overfield said another piece of the DSR that will be targeted will be allowing multiple uses on a single property. Current regulations only allow two.
The commissioners will hold a public hearing on the DSR in January.
Wyoming Strip Clubs
There are at least four active strip clubs in Wyoming, the newest of which was scheduled to open Thursday. This is the Mile High Saloon in Casper, which will be setting up in the former Rack’s Gentleman’s Club.
Mile High will join The Den Gentlemen’s Club outside Cheyenne, and Bare Back Saloon and Astro Lounge in Rock Springs.
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
