JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A controversial case involving a strip club being located less than 1,000 feet from a school remains a concern seven years after the city and many locals began fighting to get rid of it.
Doll House is located at 2220 Atlantic Blvd., across the street from Bishop Kenny High School in St. Nicholas.
The city wants the club gone because it is too close to a school, but the club says it was tehre before the ordinance prohibiting nude clubs within 1,000 feet of a school was in place.
Parents say they don't want their children walking or riding by the strip club.
A court challenge filed by the Doll House was dismissed. And while the city says the fight is over, attorney Larry Walters, who represents Doll House, said that's not the case at all.
"The appellate court essentially said, 'You have to start all over because the city passed a new law,' Walters said. "The city's under the misimpression that it had won the case. But none of our constitutional challenges have ever been decided by the court."
City Councilman Don Redman said he's confident that Doll House will eventually have to go. He said many feel the club is in an inappropriate location.
The club maintains it provides jobs for young ladies, but Redman said his district can do without those kinds of jobs.
"They have these excuses, but it ruins a lot of young ladies' lives, and it's just not the type of business for a neighborhood," Redman said.
The city said if Doll House does not leave now, it will move to shut it down. But Walters, who's already filed a notice of appeal, said if the city tries to close down the club before the case is officially over, the city would be breaking the First Amendment rights of Doll House owners and, in turn, would face damages.
In the long run, the legal fight may be moot. Plans by the Florida Department of Transportation to rebuild Interstate 95 through San Marco calls for an exit rampDoll House