Andrea Wilkinson/Nevada Sagebrush
The Wild Orchid strip club as it stands on Monday, Sept. 18. The Reno City Council voted to remove the establishment, along with other sexually oriented business, out of Downtown Reno and into industrial areas, claiming crime and prostitution won’t affect those areas as strongly.

The Reno City Council voted on Wednesday, Sept. 14, to write new ordinances that would rid downtown of strip clubs in the next five years, and move them to properly zoned industrial areas.

The council also voted for the new ordinances to prohibit digital outdoor signs outside of strip clubs in the next six months and prohibit alcohol sales at improperly zoned clubs.

The ordinances will take effect after they are reviewed by the Reno Planning Commission. They also need to pass two more votes by the city council.

The council voted 5-2 to start the process of writing new ordinances, saying Reno needs to remove strip clubs from downtown if it wants to continue to revitalize the area, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Mayor Hillary Schieve, who helped initiate the effort to clear downtown of sexually oriented businesses, voted against the alcohol restriction and relocating the already existing clubs.

According to the RGJ, the Wild Orchid owner announced the digital sign outside the strip club would come down, hoping the gesture would stop the other restrictions. Despite the effort, the council still voted for strip clubs to be relocated.

The Wild Orchid stopped displaying explicit images once the city announced they were going to rewrite the ordinances for strip clubs, and instead started promoting other businesses. However, it has been turned off since Wednesday night.

Nick Vanderpoel, a lobbyist representing the Keshmiri Group, which owns the strip club, told the RGJ the sign would come down once they found a contractor to remove it.

As of now, only one of the seven sexually oriented businesses in Reno is properly located. The ordinances would relocate the other six to the industrial areas on Mill Street and Stead Boulevard.

According to studies presented in the council, industrial areas are less affected by activities that are influenced by strip clubs, such as prostitution, crime and drug use.

Madeline Purdue can be reached at mpurdue@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @madelinepurdue.