FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A Florida gentlemen’s club claims zoning changes made by the City of West Park are threatening its future.
Plaintiff B&B Entertainment LLC filed its lawsuit January 15 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Fort Lauderdale Division.
According to its 21-page complaint, B&B owns and operates a gentlemen’s club known as The Playhouse, located on West Hallandale Beach Boulevard in West Park, Broward County.
The club provides “live exotic dance entertainment.”
“Plaintiff is suffering irreparable injury and is threatened with irreparable injury in the future because the Defendant has enacted a zoning ordinance which purportedly makes its present business unlawful and because the City has recently taken actions to censor and prohibit Plaintiff’s expressive activities through enforcement of the amortization provision,” B&B’s complaint states.
The club seeks a judgment declaring that certain West Park ordinances violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments. It also seeks a permanent injunction, barring the city from enforcing certain definitions of its Adult Entertainment Code.
“The City of West Park has adopted ordinances which are specific to adult entertainment establishments and which regulate those businesses differently from all other businesses in the community,” the filing states. “The regulations pertinent to this action are zoning restrictions which specify where adult businesses can locate.”
B&B argues the entertainment provided at The Playhouse is a form of non-obscene expression that is protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“Plaintiff maintains that the human body is a thing of beauty which, when combined with music and rhythmic motion in the form of dance, conveys an important message of eroticism,” the complaint states. “Plaintiff believes that providing this form of expressive communication to the public is a beneficial social activity which enhances individuals’ conscious ability to assimilate and consider various issues involving sexual candor and the interest in human sexuality that all human beings have to a greater or lesser degree.
“Plaintiff further believes that this expression enhances the appreciation of the human body, with an emphasis on the consideration of popular contemporary concepts of physical attractiveness and the stimulating and entertaining aspects of [the] same, which are clear characteristics of a normal and healthy interest in human sexuality.”
B&B also contends that its club’s use is consistent with the stated purpose and intent of the city’s Tourist Oriented Corridor, or TOC, in which The Playhouse is located.
“The Transit-Oriented Corridor District is established to include a rich mix of residential, retail, restaurant, service, and small employment uses within a pedestrian village format,” the filing states. “Plaintiff’s property conforms to the requirements of the TOC-2 zoning, including those unique standards for building character and density.”
B&B also contends that its predecessor had established, vested rights under Florida law and the club remains a lawful, non-conforming use after the enactment of the city’s Adult Zoning Code. That is, the property has been “grandfathered in.”
However, B&B claims the city has taken away its grandfather rights.
“The current City Commissioners and administrators have broken from past practices and have actively undertaken efforts to shut down Plaintiff’s gentlemen’s club,” the lawsuit states.
“A majority of the members of the City Commission have been engaged in a campaign to forcibly close Plaintiff’s business through direct action or through harassment, which would ultimately force Plaintiff to cease its communications and shutter its doors.”
B&B seeks a declaration that the city’s definition of “adult dancing establishment” and “adult entertainment establishment” are substantially overbroad and its zoning code for adult businesses is unconstitutional.
It also seeks a declaration that the definitions render the city’s Adult Entertainment Code unconstitutionally overbroad and unenforceable.
It wants the federal court to enter an order permanently enjoining the city from enforcing those definitions and its Adult Entertainment Code.
B&B also seeks an award for its recoverable costs, including attorney’s fees.
Fort Lauderdale firm Benjamin Aaronson Edinger & Patanzo PA is representing B&B in the action.
