Upscale Gentlemen's Club

The proposed Gentlemen's Club at 1415 JFK Causeway was not on the agenda at last night's city commission meeting but was clearly on the minds of all the attendees.

During Good & Welfare, Penelope Friedland of North Bay Island read a letter about the issues with the lackadaisical city planning recommendation to approve the plans even though the measurements are suspect, the city planner did not know about the school across the street nor the religious congregation, had not reviewed the traffic study, never requested an economic impact study nor a public safety study and took at face value that less than half the zoned retail, club and restaurant will be available to the public so minimal parking is needed.

Others, including me, spoke against the real threat that the commission could try to pull the same trick they did last year when they tried to ram through the plans at a special commission meeting called with 72 hours notice.

In the meantime, there are over 1000 signatures on the petitions.

The commission needs to take this seriously. NBV cannot keep paying for the city planner to treat this as though it were just any old building. And even if it were, the things left out of the application would be disastrous for any development this size. Part of our slump is poor city planning and if our current contracted city planner cannot do the job, we need a new one. It's too risky.

Did anyone else see the Herald story on the kidnapping from Diamond's Gentlemen's Club, a five star rated (on Yelp) club known for its exclusivity and classy ambience. Check it out by clicking here. Yeah, just what we need.

More tomorrow about the other subjects at the commission meeting.

Kevin Vericker
December 14, 2011