The never ending strip club problem in North Miami (and North Miami Beach) has reared its ugly head yet again.  I first wrote about this issue a year ago and it just won’t go away.  As I’ve mentioned in several columns since then, strip clubs have been operating in North Miami Beach for decades.  Whether or not you approve of their existence, they are legitimate businesses which keep up their licenses according to the city’s ordinances.  As long as these businesses operate legally and do not break any federal, state or local laws, there’s not much anyone can do to make them go away.

That being said, there is a big difference between “legal” and “respectable.”  I still firmly believe that strip clubs, tattoo parlors, XXX video stores, pawn shops and palm readers do not do much to improve the image of any city.  The existence of these establishments does nothing to help attract families or other businesses.

Which brings me to the burning question that I asked in a previous column:  Why would the City of North Miami’s Council deliberately choose to allow a strip club to open up where none has ever existed?  This location is in the close “proximity of Biscayne Landings, David Lawrence Jr. K-8 Center, Alonzo and Tracy Mourning Senior High School and Florida International University.  The site is also right next door to “the Community Television Foundation of South Florida, WPBT2″ (the home of Sesame Street) and within rock throwing distance of several upscale automobile dealerships, which sell cars that cost more than my house.”  This makes no sense to me whatsoever.

On top of making this unbelievably stupid decision, by letting this strip club open, North Miami may have also broken a few of its own laws.  According to a lawsuit filed by three members of the City of North Miami Board of Adjustment yesterday, “the city prohibits the sale of alcohol within 1,500 feet of a residence, school, or place of worship, unless a distance variance is sought and obtained from the City of North Miami Board of Adjustment.”  Since this proposed strip club “would be located less than 1,500 feet from a residential apartment building, as well as less than 400 feet from a dance and gymnastics training academy for over 300 children and teenagers,” the strip club would necessarily have to apply for variances.  Accordingly, the strip club did just that.

However, on August 15, 2012, the Board of Adjustment denied the strip club’s request for variances by a vote of 4-3.  According to the City’s own Code, the Board has the right to deny such a variance; however, in typical North Miami fashion, the Council simply ignored the Board’s decision … and its own laws.

In order to get around the Board’s decision, the lawsuit alleges that the City illegally demanded a rehearing of the variance request scheduled for September 20, 2012, and then promptly replaced “two of the four Board members who voted to deny the variances,” before the rehearing date.  One of the replacement members was a person who previous advocated (lobbied?) for the strip club.

Wow!  Talk about stacking the deck!

In addition to the allegedly illegal demand for a rehearing, the lawsuit also alleges that “the Board of Adjustment is the City’s ultimate zoning authority over variances,” and in fact, cites an Ordinance No. 1321 which was passed in September of 2011 by this very Council, which eliminated appeals of variances to the Board and directed all variance appeals to be filed with the appellate division of the Circuit Court.

On top of that, the City’s own Code “prohibits variances from being refiled within 12 months of denial and provides as the only recourse to parties aggrieved by a Board of Adjustment decision to file a judicial appeal.”  The lawsuit alleges that not only was this “rehearing” illegally ordered to take place one month and five days after the original hearing (and not over 12 months), but also that any appeal should have been filed with the circuit court and not the Board itself.

Then again, the North Miami City Council just does as it pleases regardless of its own laws.

I want to be perfectly clear that I am not the Morality Police.  I personally don’t care whether or not any city has strip clubs, even if I think they cheapen the image of a community.  I am, however, concerned about the law.  If a City Council goes through all the trouble to legislate Resolutions and Ordinances, it has the responsibility to enforce its own rules and regulations.  It also has the responsibility NOT to violate them!  DUH!

Then again, we are talking about North Miami, where it appears there are no rules.  They just make ’em up as they go along.

Furthermore, North Miami has been fortunate so far in that they don’t have the strip club problem that has been plaguing North Miami Beach for years.  It makes absolutely no sense that the North Miami City Council would deliberately bring this headache on themselves.  One wonders why they’d press an issue that is obviously so unpopular with its residents and business owners.  Don’t they have enough on their plate already?  Like giving the city’s key to the Kardashians?

I’m just saying.

Stephanie Kienzle
“Spreading the Wealth”