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Saturday, November 15, 2008

Topless bar application puts Destin in uncharted territory

November 15, 2008
Fraser Sherman

In the 10 years he’s been at Destin City Hall, nobody has proposed opening a topless bar in town, Deputy City Manager John Paton says.

That’s no longer the case. Ricky Griffith, who owns the Oasis and Thai Delights property on Mountain Drive, recently filed a business-license application to turn the Oasis into a topless bar, but it’s an idea that isn’t finding many supporters.

“The board hasn’t discussed it and rarely takes specific positions on individual businesses,” President/CEO Shane Moody of the Destin Area Chamber of Commerce told The Log, “but with us trying to turn the harbor into a destination and festive marketplace for families, a strip club is not what we want to see there.”

Thursday afternoon, four women working at Harmon Insurance and Bonding, in the Destin Business Center next to Griffith’s property, said to put them down as “Four no’s ... totally against.”

A half-dozen men playing pool at Oasis that afternoon declined to answer The Log’s questions.

“I’m not going there,” one of them said.

Still, City Manager Greg Kisela said, it’s not surprising Griffith has applied: “If it’s commercially viable you’re going to have adult entertainment wanting to be here ... We’ve got 40 to 60,000 tourists during the 100 days of summer.”

Community Development Director Ken Gallander said the Commercial Trades and Services zoning on the north side of Mountain doesn’t allow for topless waitresses. The only zoning in Destin that would allow them is Industrial, which is found in two areas off Airport Road.
If the city turns down Griffith’s application over the zoning, he has the option to appeal to the Board of Adjustments, and to take a refusal to circuit court. Alternatively, he could ask the council to rezone his land to Industrial or to redefine Commercial Trades and Services.

Griffith signed the business-license application, but he told The Log that the topless bar is his lessee’s idea.

Norma Calhoun, the former manager of the Oasis, told The Log that Terry Stephenson of the Georgia strip club Pin-ups, had leased the property. The Log wasn’t able to reach Stephenson for confirmation or comment.

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