His new ordinance will update the definition for adult sex venues to include retail sales and service uses. "They are not permitted uses in many parts of the city where it would make sense for them to open." "But just being allowed doesn't mean people can open them because there are all these zoning restrictions," said Mandelman. He had spearheaded the legislative drive to bring back traditional gay bathhouses in San Francisco. To lift the de facto adult sex business ban, gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman introduced a cleanup zoning proposal at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting. They are broadly banned throughout much of San Francisco, including in such LGBTQ neighborhoods as the Castro, Upper Market, Tenderloin, and South of Market. Such establishments include adult bookstores, video stores, and theaters historically patronized by men in order to engage in sex with other men on site.
Teague had determined adult sex venues as defined by the city's health code were considered a type of adult business under the planning code.
The existing rooms felt ready for us."īut Eros can't welcome patrons into its new space until the city updates its zoning for adult businesses due to a decision made by Zoning Administrator Corey Teague in December 2020. "If you know anything about sex clubs, a sex club is a mixture of dog kennel and artist collective. "So much of this space was totally ready for us," said Eros co-owner Ken Rowe.
There will be another play space on the ground floor and a locker room area, with plans to include one or two semi-private rooms with doors at a later date. It includes a mezzanine level where a play space is being constructed for Eros' patrons. Eros is taking over the 4,000 square foot commercial space in the property. Today, the upper floors of the former bathhouse are being turned into apartments with the baths' historic address of 130 Turk Street. More recently, a dog groomer and kennel using the name of the old gay bathhouse had operated in the space followed by an artist collective. The building had been the site of the gay Bulldog Baths in the late 1970s and 1980s. In December, it closed its longtime home on upper Market Street and began moving into 132 Turk Street. The issue is why Eros, the sex club for queer and trans men, has yet to open in its new Tenderloin location. Yet zoning restrictions remain in place preventing adult sex businesses from operating in most of the city. The proposed zoning change will also allow adult sex venues to operate in neighborhoods historically home to LGBTQ districts.Ī prohibition against such businesses having locked rooms, enacted in the 1980s during the height of the AIDS epidemic, was officially lifted in early 2021. A final hurdle for reopening gay bathhouses in San Francisco should be removed by Pride Month.