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Summit News appeals cabaret designation

WARREN – The owner of Summit News appealed the designation of his business as an adult cabaret. As a cabaret, Summit News, 645 Summit St., cannot operate because it is within 1,000 feet of a city park.

The request was filed Thursday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. It appeals the city’s Feb. 20 zoning board decision to uphold the city’s planning coordinator’s identification of the establishment as an adult cabaret.

In his appeal, attorney Douglas W. Ross, representing Eric J. Hamer, 50 Poplar Ave., contends that Summit Street News does not fit the description of an adult cabaret.

Hamer, in a Dec. 2 letter, argues that according to Warren ordinances, adult cabarets are nightclubs, bars restaurants or similar establishments which regularly features persons who appear live in a state of dress which fails to opaquely cover a human buttock, pubic region, genitals or aureola of a female breast.

Summit News patrons watch movies, and no live performers are part of the business, according to Hamer’s letter.

In a Nov. 13 zone use approval application, Hamer described the club as having 10 open booths where patrons may view a selection of DVDs for a set amount of time per dollar. There also will be an area where patrons will be able to adult movies that are projected or watched on wide-screen televisions.

“The proposed use at issue, which is a theater, is specifically permitted,” Hamer wrote.

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