Seattle- Mayor Greg Nickels proposed new rules for strip clubs yesterday, including a virtual ban on lap dances, that could hurt existing clubs and keep new ones from opening in Seattle.

The mayor’s proposal would bar strippers from getting within four feet of customers, in effect eliminating the closer contact that often occurs with lap dances and table dances. It also would require brighter lighting, prohibit customers from directly tipping dancers, and hold owners and managers responsible for violations by dancers.

Some of the proposed strict rules have been upheld by state and federal courts and should withstand legal challenges, said Regina LaBelle, the mayor’s legal adviser. LaBelle said the mayor wants to keep new clubs from opening.

One club manager was disappointed with the proposal. “The morality police are out,” said Keith Jackson, a manager at the Déjà Vu club downtown. “My take is that rules and regulations are already in place. Enforcement of those should be enough instead of adding new laws or rules.”

The mayor’s proposed restrictions are prompted, in part, by a federal lawsuit challenging the city’s 1988 moratorium on new clubs.

For 17 years, the city has annually renewed its ban and kept strip-clubs limited to four: Rick’s in Lake City, Déjà Vu near Pike Place Market, The Sands in Loyal Heights and Centerfolds in Crown Hill. A fifth licensed in Greenwood has not been operating.

The city allows these clubs because they existed before the ban.

A lawsuit was filed May 16 in U.S. District Court in Seattle on behalf of Bob Davis, who has owned comedy and dance clubs in the city. The suit alleges that by denying Davis a strip-club license last year, the city violated his constitutional rights.

Davis’ lawyer, Kristin Olson, declined to comment on Nickels’ proposal. Gil Levy, lawyer for Rick’s owner Frank Colacurcio Jr., could not be reached. A receptionist at Colacurcio’s office said he could not be reached.

LaBelle said the lawsuit is one reason Nickels sent the City Council his proposed rules. “We do have this lawsuit pending. There could be a variety of different outcomes. We could have to have more strip clubs and we need to make sure we have an updated code,” she said.

Colacurcio’s links to political contributions made in 2003 to council incumbents ignited the “Strippergate” controversy over a request to expand the parking lot at his Lake City club. King County prosecutors are investigating those contributions.

The city’s current rules require dancers to wear some clothing unless they are on a stage, which must be six feet from customers. Dancers cannot simulate sexual acts, touch their private parts, allow others to touch their private parts or touch the private parts of customers. But dancers are allowed to provide lap dances to customers as long as their private parts are clothed.

The rules also call for lighting that makes all objects “plainly visible.”

They would require lighting bright enough so “you’d be able to read a newspaper fairly easily throughout the club,” LaBelle said.

The rules also would bar a dancer from directly accepting a tip. Instead, tips would have to be deposited in a container or given to a manager.

“That’s certainly not something I would be comfortable with,” said Jackson, the Déjà Vu manager. “It might bother entertainers. But I don’t know that it would necessarily hurt business.”