Latest chess move in strip club case

Less than a month after Destin amended its adult-entertainment ordinances, the city is preparing for a do-over, City Manager Greg Kisela says.

Not because there’s a problem with the new rules, Kisela said, but because Terry Stephenson, who’s suing the city to open a Mountain Drive strip club, says the city didn’t meet legal requirements when it announced its public hearings on the new ordinance.

“It’s a chess game,” Kisela told The Log. “They make a move, we make a move. They file for a business license, they get denied; we move to amend our ordinances, they file suit.”

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To read the latest court filing, click here.

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The opening moves took place in November, when Stephenson, who leases the Oasis on Mountain Drive, applied for a business license to offer nude dancing there.

Adult entertainment is only allowed in Destin’s Industrial zoning off parts of Airport Road, so the city turned Stephenson down. Stephenson then filed suit in Pensacola federal district court to get the license.

The city’s counter-move was to replace its 1986 ordinance prohibiting exposing genitals, buttocks or the female breast “below the top of the areola” in any business “which sells alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises.” The new rules, which the City Council approved unanimously last month, require the owner and staff of sexually oriented businesses to take out city licenses; prohibit nudity; ban alcohol from the premises; and limit the hours to 10 a.m. to 1 a.m.

Anthony Garganese, who represents the city in the lawsuit, has said the new ordinance is more compatible with case law on how to regulate nude dancing. Stephenson’s attorney, Gary Edinger, however, filed for an injunction this week to block the city from enforcing the new ordinance on several grounds:

•The ordinance changes the city zoning rules as they relate to adult businesses, and Destin didn’t comply with Florida law about how those changes are advertised. Specifically, Kisela said, the Oasis objected to a legal ad for the meeting that its lawyers say contained an improper font size as prescribed by state law.

•The terms “adult cabaret” and “semi-nudity” are too “unconstitutionally overbroad” to hold up in court because they cover performances that have solid first-amendment protection.

“We’re not in agreement,” Kisela said, but to make sure all the i’s are dotted, “we’re going to readopt and readvertise.”

Kisela said if everything proceeds smoothly, the LPA would rehear the ordinance the week of March 9, followed by council hearings on March 16 and 30.