The city’s Zoning Appeals Board approved a proposal to expand the Scores strip club, but not before some city officials questioned the plan and voiced their reservations about its approval.
Scores owner Brian Shulman received the go-ahead from the panel to open a second floor lounge as long as it did not include adult entertainment, the Baltimore Sun reported. The lounge, which has no private rooms, has a cutaway wall that allows patrons to look down on the dancers below.
But some city and liquor board officials said the entertainment ban may mean little since the proposal does not bar dancers to access the room if they are dressed and not performing for customers.
David Tanner, executive director of the Board of Municipal and Zoning Appeals, said the plan could cause potential problems.
Likewise, Samuel T. Daniels Jr., chief liquor inspector and acting secretary of the city’s liquor board said the having dancers along with patrons in the lounge has the potential of creating a “hostile environment.”
But Shulman’s attorney said the club will abide by the Board’s restrictions.
Shulman had bought the club in 2004 for $1.8 million and had been seeking to expand it. The club had been known as Atlantis. But attorneys for Associated Catholic Charities, which runs a food pantry nearby, had been trying to block the club’s expansion prior to the board’s ruling.
