For the dozen or so citizens who showed up at last night’s Zoning Hearing Board at the Borough of Columbia Town Hall conference room, there seemed to be a great deal of testimony and legal discussion.

When Board Chairperson, Beverly Shank, tapped the closing gavel at 9:19 pm, the dozen or so citizens who sat through the more than two hour long meeting and the participants in the “main event” – the four members of the Board in attendance, those representing the applicant and those representing the Borough of Columbia – barely knew more than they did two hours and one-quarter hours earlier.

At the end of the evening, the applicant, Club Good Times, and the Borough came to the decision to reconvene at the next regularly scheduled meeting on January 30, 2013 at 7:00 p.m.

The four Board members who constituted the quorum at last night’s meeting were Chairperson Shank, Cleon Berntheizel, Joseph Nikolaus and newly appointed member, Don Haines. Joselle Cleary is the solicitor representing the Zoning Hearing Board.

The applicant’s legal counsel and an “expert witness” presented testimony (item “7 c” of the above agenda) relevant to and surrounding the issue which, according to the Legal Notice published in the general circulation publication is to:

“consider the following application(s) and/or  appeal(s): Richard Fisher and AEE Encounters, Inc., d/b/a Club Good Times [NOTE: There are images with nudity at this Website.] have filed a challenge to the substantive validity of the Columbia Borough Zoning Ordinance asserting that the Zoning Ordinance provides no sites for Adult Uses, including nude dance and, in the alternative, requests a special exception to substitute a gentlemen’s club with nude dance for an existing non conforming use of a gentlemen’s club with partially clothed dancers and/or variances from requirements of the Zoning Ordinance relating to a change of a nonconforming use to an adult use, separation of an adult use from a dwelling, side and rear yard setbacks, and minimum lot size. The challenge / application relates to 425 Union Street, Columbia, PA, which is located in the HDR High Density Residential District.”

Columbia news, views & reviews included this in an earlier article about the hearing:

“According to the Columbia Borough Website, this definition describes an “ADULT LIVE ENTERTAINMENT FACILITY: A use including live entertainment involving persons (which may include waiters, waitresses, dancers, clerks, bartenders, contractors or others) displaying uncovered male or female genitals or nude or almost nude female breasts or engaging in simulated or actual specified sexual activities related to some form of monetary compensation paid to a person, company or organization operating the use or to persons involved in such activity.”

In the Borough’s “Ordinances” section, this is the link to the “Additional Requirements for Specific Uses.”

All the above parties, citizens and everyone else will have to wait to find out whether the pasties and g-strings come off – at least until the January 30, 2013 hearing.