Billboard advertising gentlemen's club near Algonquin causes concern

ALGONQUIN – A billboard advertising a "full nude show club" just outside village limits is causing concern for Algonquin Village President John Schmitt.

Schmitt said the sign went up a few weeks ago on Algonquin Road between the bike path bridge and Pyott Road, and promotes the Blackjacks Gentlemen’s Club in South Elgin.

The billboard features a picture of a woman, and reads “In the mood for nude?”

“I find it offensive and unacceptable for a community that prides itself on quality,” Schmitt said.

There is only one billboard in village limits, at Route 25 and Route 62, Schmitt said.

“We don’t allow them; we don’t want them because of this type of inappropriate signage that can be put out there,” he said.

Schmitt said he and other representatives from surrounding villages have previously asked the county, which had jurisdiction over the non-electronic Blackjacks sign, for a say in signs that go up near village limits.

In March, the McHenry County Board approved its first request to erect an electronic billboard since approving new and tougher regulations. The billboard was placed just outside Algonquin village limits and is bordered by unincorporated homes.

The governments of both Algonquin and Crystal Lake opposed granting the permit.

The County Board's approval of its new Unified Development Ordinance in October 2014 ended a two-year moratorium on the placing of electronic billboards, which was enacted at the request of those municipalities, along with Lake in the Hills and Lakewood.

Municipal officials asked for the ban as the county updated and overhauled its development-related ordinances.

They made the request out of frustration after the county received a surge of requests by sign companies that sought to erect large video billboards at the time to take advantage of looser regulations for unincorporated land.

Schmitt said many residents have been making comments about the Blackjacks sign on the village's Facebook page, where he issued a statement explaining that the sign is not in village limits. He said he wants residents to know the village is doing whatever it can to try to remove the billboard.

“I do think that the county should make an effort to get rid of this type of thing,” Schmitt said.

McHenry County Planning and Development Director Dennis Sandquist said he has received complaints about the billboard near Algonquin and another one from the same business on Route 31 in Crystal Lake.

“We don’t determine what goes on a sign in any way,” Sandquist said. “We permit signs as physical structure, and we regulate them on their size and structure.”

If someone did cite a billboard as being obscene, it would have to be prosecuted through the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office, he said.

Norm Vinton, chief of the civil division with the State’s Attorney’s Office, said he has received six calls from people complaining about the billboards.

“Although we think it is distasteful and in poor taste, we don’t think it rises to the level of obscene,” Vinton said.