SOUTH CORNING, N.Y. - The Corning Zoning Board unanimously rejected a proposal last week by Wayne Swartz to re-zone a 39-acre lot he owns from residential to industrial use so that he could open a gentleman's club there, according to The Corning Leader.
At a Town Hall meeting Wednesday night, close to 100 local residents turned out to express their opposition to the proposal, giving the board a standing ovation following its vote.
Linda Truesdale, one of the dozens of residents who came to the podium during the 30-minute public comment period, said, "There is nothing gentlemanly about a man watching a woman stripping and swinging around a pole. It's terrible; it demoralizes young girls."
A number of those in attendance were from the Christian Life Baptist Church, which plans to open a new facility near the site of the proposed club.
This was the second time Swartz' attempt to change the zoning of the parcel has been rejected. The first rejection was handed down by the Corning Town Board in 2005, and now Swartz plans to appeal to the Town Planning Board.
"That's next," Swartz told the Leader just after the meeting. "Then I'll get rejected by them. Then we go to court and I win. This is all part of the game."
Currently, only 1.6 percent of Corning's total acreage is open to adult businesses, when the state of New York recommends that five percent of a municipality's land allow them.
"They don't have any land where you can develop an adult-use business in town," Swartz said. "There is no industrial zone land with frontage. So if you want people to come, you'd have to fly them in there."
Swartz claimed that he has also formerly sought approval to open an ice cream shop and a car wash on the lot, but was rejected. Town Code Enforcement officer Linda Giardina denied that he had ever done so.
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