Iowa- A Des Moines-area strip club has gone to court to defend its right to publicize the location of nearly naked women.

The owners of Minx Show Palace, 1510 N.E. 46th St., sued the Polk County Board of Adjustment this week, seeking to block the county from tearing down a 9-foot by 7-foot sign identifying the club’s location.

Polk County court papers say the business applied for and obtained a permit in 2002 to install the freestanding sign, which simply says “Minx Show Palace,” along Northeast 46th Street. Everything apparently was fine until January, when a racy Minx billboard on Northeast 14th Street, which featured pictures of scantily clad women, spawned a host of complaints to area politicians and zoning administrators.

County officials say a subsequent review of all adult-business signs uncovered the problem.

John Rowan, code enforcement manager for Polk County, said that the 2002 permit apparently was a mistake, and that Minx officials must install a different sign that’s attached to their building.

Minx’s lawyers say the county also contends that the club’s officials didn’t properly identify themselves on the permit application. The permit, which is attached to the lawsuit, was filed in the landlord’s name but mentions both Minx and “adult use.”

Minx officials failed last month in an attempt to plead their case before the Board of Adjustment. Their lawsuit now challenges both the county’s “arbitrary and capricious” decisions and the legality of county regulations for adult businesses.

Polk zoning rules require that “advertisements, displays or other promotional materials” for adult businesses “shall not be shown or exhibited so as to be visible to the public from pedestrian sidewalks, walkways, or from other public or semi-public areas.”

Basically what that amounts to, according to Minx attorney Kathryn Barnhill, is “so long as the public can’t see it, you’re welcome to have a sign.”