Chins up, strip club aficionados. Because thanks to the Palm Beach County Commission, you can now get a steak with your lap dances. On Thursday morning, commissioners approved a zoning change that will allow the Double D Ranch and Saloon strip club to serve food.
Despite some Palm Beach residents opposing the measure, commissioners voted to approve the zoning change for the strip club, which is under construction on Southern Boulevard, west of the turnpike.
Earlier this month, residents voiced their displeasure through emails, asking commissioners to block any of the proposed changes. Specifically, some residents are troubled over the how the strip club might bring crime and put a hurting on home values.
As it stands, current Palm Beach zoning laws prohibit food from being served in industrial sections of of the county. Double D is being built in an industrial section of Royal Palm Beach.
Specifically, the changes will allow adult entertainment businesses like Double D to fix up their buildings and parking lots without a tangle of regulations. Regulations will be eased and will allow these business to serve food.
Some of the concerned citizens attended Thursday's vote, according to WPTV.
"It's so close to our development, within 500 feet of some of the houses, and the hours also are deplorable," one resident said, via the TV station. "All right, they can stay open until 5 a.m., when people are leaving for work, and you are going to have people that have been drinking all night onto Southern Boulevard. That doesn't sound like it's very smart."
Double D is being built on a lot across the street from a residential area, next to a shopping center, and not far from Everglades Elementary School.
Residents who are worried over the changes are concerned that a strip club that serves food will bring in more customers than a strip club that does not. There would also be at least another dozen or so adult entertainment businesses that would be allowed to serve food if via the proposed changes.
The two commissioners who voted against the rules were Paulette Burdick and Melissa McKinlay.
Burdick, in particular, denounced the adult businesses as degrading to women.
McKinlay tried to sway the other commissioners before the vote by bringing up stats that show that police are called to strip clubs in Palm Beach County at a high clip.
While no date has been set for when Double D will open, an attorney for the strip club confirmed that the operating hours will be from noon to 5 a.m. and that the establishment will have ample security. The attorney also said the building will have enough landscaping to obstruct its view from passing motorists.
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