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Controversial sign out of compliance
By SUZETTE PORTER
Article published on Tuesday, March 18, 2008 |
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![[Image]](/content_images/031808_pco-03.jpg) |
| Photo by THOMAS MICHALSKI |
| This controversial billboard on 66th Street North in unincorporated Pinellas County does not comply with code, but it’s not because of the scantily dressed woman. |
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CLEARWATER – Complaints have been rolling in for weeks about a sign in unincorporated Pinellas County advertising the Bottoms Up Gentleman’s Club located at 8804 66th St. N.
Scores of angry residents say they want the scantily clad woman to cover up.
Officials from Pinellas County and the city of Pinellas Park have been receiving the brunt of the complaints. The club is located just across the street from the Pinellas Park city limits.
Parents are upset that they have to pass the sign while taking their young children to school. However, until lately there was little that could be done since the sign did not violate local laws.
County Commissioner John Morroni broached the hot topic at the March 18 Board of County Commissioners meeting. He explained that what many had thought might be a good sign turned out to be false hope.
Morroni said he planned to bring the subject up during the board’s February meeting, but because the sign had come down just before the meeting, he had thought a discussion between club owners, Pinellas Park Mayor Bill Mischler and himself had solved the problem.
But, Morroni reported, it seemed that the discussion was not the reason the sign had gone down as it had gone back up with no changes except an additional of a scrolling LED message board.
Morroni said the latest version of the controversial sign does not comply with county code.
County Attorney Jim Bennett explained that county law does not allow signs that move, so the scrolling message board is a violation. Bennett said the addition of the message board also made the sign bigger, so it now exceeds the maximum square footage allowed by about 10 square feet.
Bennett said the club had been issued two citations.
However, he said, all the club has to do to get back of the right side of the law is remove the message board or put up a smaller message board that does not scroll or move.
Morroni’s suggestion that the board take a look at its ordinance regulating adult businesses and consider moving them all to one area almost turned into a heated discussion, and Commission Chairman Bob Stewart did his best to hurry past the hot-button topic.
But Morroni insisted a discussion was needed because as the law stands there is nothing that can be done about the sign.
“Parents are complaining that they have to look at that sign when they drive their kids to school,” Morroni said.
At least one elementary school is located in the area.
Commissioner Calvin Harris expressed displeasure about creating a special area for adult businesses.
“They’re (adult businesses) bad anywhere,” he said.
He said creating a special area would just make a “zone of immorality” and give the zone the board’s sanction by its creation.
Bennett said the current law prohibits adult-use businesses from existing within 400 feet of churches, day care centers, schools and other identified activities.
He said when the county’s current ordinance regulating adult businesses was passed, the board had spent extensive time exploring the pros and cons of concentrating versus dispersing the businesses throughout the county.
He said the decision had been made that the best thing would be to disperse the businesses to prevent creation of a “battle zone” or “blighted area with a lot of crime.”
He said the current ordinance was legally sustainable and did not believe it should be changed.
“The owner (Bottoms Up) seems to be going out of his way to be a bad neighbor,” Commissioner Ken Welch said. “Just a small amount of paint would make that a bikini.”
Interim County Administrator Fred Marquis reminded the board that the discussion was about the sign and not the business.
“Even if we concentrated all the businesses into one area, they could still put up a sign anywhere in the county,” he said. “We can’t regulate the message.”
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Article published on Tuesday, March 18, 2008
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