SEATTLE - City officials ruled Thursday that a strip club may legally operate downtown near Safeco Field, even though the area is heavily visited by children and families.

The Seattle Mariners and other businesses in the area had asked the city to include the ball park in an 800-foot buffer zone that would ban strip clubs from operating nearby.

But city planners ruled that Safeco Field does not meet any of the criteria under city codes that would require a buffer zone or a ban against the strip club.

"Safeco Field is not regulated as a community center under the Land Use Code, nor do the stadium or its associated facilities qualify as 'public parks and open space' uses," wrote city planner Andrew McKim in the decision.

City codes prohibit nude dance establishments from operating within 800 feet of community centers, public parks or other facilities, such as schools or child care centers.

Mariners spokesperson Rebecca Hale said the ball club is reviewing the city's decision and studying its options.

The city's decision means the strip club owners can likely move forward with getting a building permit either by Friday or Monday. The proposed location for the strip club is at 1530 First Avenue South.

Five strip clubs, which are defined as "adult cabarets" in city code - already operate in Seattle. Now that a city moratorium on strip clubs has been lifted, Roger Forbes, who owns Deja Vu, wants to open a sixth in a building in the Sodo district.

The Mariners organization has long opposed the strip club's location so near Safeco Field.

"We're saying we don't think there should be strip clubs. We're simply saying we should be included in the buffer zone," Hale said in October.

"People going to the games or coming here will have to pass by it," said Hale. "We're not saying, 'not in my backyard.' We're saying, 'not in my front yard."

In justifying the city's decision, McKim wrote that Safeco Field is a spectator sports facility - not a community center.

"Although the Safeco Field facilities are often used for community purposes, this does not make Safeco Field a community center, nor does it provide a basis for saying that there is an accessory community center use on the property," he wrote in the decision.

He also wrote that spectator sports facilities are subject to different standards under city law than community centers or parks.

"If dispersion of adult cabarets from spectator sports facilities had been intended, spectator sports facilities should have been among the specific uses listed in the dispersion criteria," he wrote.