San Tan Flat customers to boogie down

Pinal County, Arizona's bizarre crusade against San Tan Flat, a popular bar and restaurant, has come to an end, with victory for the establishment's owners and for would-be dancers everywhere.

Pinal County Superior Court Judge William O'Neil overturned a decision from the county Board of Supervisors that said the country-Western-themed restaurant was operating an illegal dance hall by allowing patrons to dance to live music on its back patio. ...

The Board of Supervisors had said [owner Dale] Bell violated a zoning ordinance from 1962 that bans outdoor dance halls. The county contended the ordinance was designed to prevent excessive or disruptive noise and threatened to fine Bell $700 a day for each day he was found out of compliance.

But O'Neil said the wording of the ordinance has nothing to do with noise. He added that Bell's business and profits rely on food and beverage sales, not dancing.

County officials knew full well that San Tan Flat would have noise, sell liquor and have a stage and "at each step they approved" Bell's plans for the building in the rural area near Ellsworth Road and Hunt Highway, O'Neil said. ...

Bell opened his business in November 2005 and said the county should have objected to the project before they let him build it. Bell sued the county for $1, saying the dance-hall ordinance violated his constitutional right to freely run his business.

"That $1 is about freedom and about civil liberties and the government not being allowed to overreach," Bell said Wednesday.

Judge O'Neil threw in a few slaps at San Tan Flat owner Dale Bell for having had the temerity to operate the place, but agreed that he had dotted every "i" and crossed every "t" on the way to opening San Tan Flat's doors.