After Duchess, any new strip club would require rezoning: city

Photo: Kristen Holliday

The building housing the Duchess, Kamloops' final strip club. The Tranquille Road property has been purchased by the City of Kamloops for redevelopment.

Once the Tranquille Road property housing the Duchess is redeveloped, the location of the city’s final strip bar will be no more — and, under City of Kamloops bylaws, anyone else wishing to operate an exotic dancing club will need to first seek rezoning approval.

The City of Kamloops recently purchased 377 Tranquille Rd., the site of the Duchess nightclub and the Northbridge Hotel, and announced it will look to sell the property for market redevelopment.

Rod Martin, planning and development manager for the city, said exotic dancing isn’t a permitted use in any city zone, and the Duchess would have been the last club that held “non-conforming use status.”

In an email to Castanet Kamloops, Martin said anyone wishing to open a new exotic dance club would need to go through a special rezoning application process in order to receive permission to operate.

“If a new exotic dance club wants to open up in town, it would require approval of a rezoning application to request that use to be permitted on a site-specific basis,” Martin said.

Martin said rezonings require a public hearing and approval from city council.

Outbacks, which later turned into the Duchess, became the last strip club in Kamloops after the Rendezvous Hotel was shuttered more than a decade ago.

In 2008, the province pulled the Rendezvous’ liquor license and the City of Kamloops revoked the bar's business permit after an RCMP investigation revealed the business was involved in the drug trade, and its owner was briefly jailed for drug offences.

The Rendezvous building now houses the Emerald Shelter on Victoria Street West.