The city’s Department of Planning and Development, which answers to the mayor, issued a surprise response today to City Council member Peter Steinbrueck’s demand that Nickels come up with zoning regulations dictating where strip clubs can be located before a new slate of regulations banning lap dances, requiring bright lighting, and banning direct tipping in strip clubs can go into effect. They actually came up with zoning regulations.

The proposed strip-club zone, which spans 310 acres just south of the stadiums, is occupied primarily by industrial and warehouse businesses - a result of the mayor’s requirement that strip clubs be prohibited within 1000 feet of parks, playgrounds, day cares, and churches.

The new zone, which still has to be adopted by the council (the proposal just landed on Peter Steinbrueck’s desk this afternoon), would have no impact on a proposed referendum to repeal the four-foot rule and other regulations adopted by the council in October. That referendum, being pushed by a coalition of strip-club owners and employees, will probably go on the ballot sometime next fall.