Remember the Show N Tail club from Panama City Beach’s yesteryear? The club owner, Allen Johnson, appeared before the Bay County Commission yesterday to put forward a petition to re-open the well-known adult establishment on Holley Lane southwest of the Thomas Drive/98 interchange.
On the night of June 20th, 2006, a fire destroyed Show N Tail nightclub, previously located on Thomas Drive. Thankfully, no-one was injured in the blaze, and Mr Johnson had hoped to rebuild at the Thomas Drive location, but a 1996 county ordinance barred adult businesses from tourist corridors, including parts of State 79, Front Beach Road, Back Beach Road and Thomas Drive.
Show N Tail was actually built prior to the adoption of a 1996 county ordinance that imposed the restriction, however the new location is considered commercial/industrial and the club qualifies under current zoning regulations. Harry Harper, Johnson’s attorney, argued Tuesday that Johnson had a verbal agreement in place with the 1999 County Commission stating that he could relocate Show N Tail to an industrial park. Harper said that, despite the locale’s proximity to a neighborhood, its location in an industrial park should quell neighbor complaints. “If you go to the Golden Nugget or the Toy Box, you can throw a rock and hit houses,” Harper said in a phone interview with the New Herald on Tuesday. “This is not a situation where it’s going to be a nuisance. People are pretty much going to be unaware that it’s going to be there.”
The Bay County Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to allow Johnson to appeal the decision by county Planning and Zoning Manager Martin Jacobson, preventing Johnson from opening the new club in its proposed location. Jacobson said that the proposed spot violates county ordinances preventing adult clubs within 1,500 feet of residential areas.
The commissioners mostly agreed with Harper at Tuesday’s meeting, despite Jacobson’s objections. “It’s about as isolated a spot as you’re going to find anywhere in the beaches,” said Commissioner Jerry Girvin.
PCBDaily 
I think this is GREAT!!!!! I’m gonna fill out an application as soon as they open it up!!!
~J’s
LikeLike
So, I agree. I think this would be a good idea to give our girls on Harrison Ave a fresh new job.
LikeLike
J’s you should really have more self worth! I’m sure you arrrg a lovely lady, I hear the pirate ship is hiring!
LikeLike
Damn right ima decent lady. I pay may taxes, I take care of my childrens. Oh crap, I cant figure out how to use the word suppository in a sentence.
LikeLike
What are your views on the issue specifically? Are you for the club re-opening or would you prefer it stayed a thing of the past? Let’s stick with the topic at hand guys and submit only comments that will be useful to other PCB Daily readers!
LikeLike
Not sure where that location is. If it is out of site I would not oppose it. However the bigger problem would come with the advertising of the place. If you have ever been to Vegas!!!. That would be a bigger issue to me and I think to the island!
LikeLike
This business should not be allowed to reopen. It is detrimental to the family focus PCB wants to portray and is, therefore, detrimental to the overall well-being of the city and county. There have been many conversations on this website regarding how PCB can better compete with Destin, Ft. Walton and 30-A. This is not the right way. It’s a step backwards. It’s also ethically wrong to encourage young women to limit themselves by taking one of these jobs. It limits them now and in the future if they want to have stability in later life. You might as well give Joe Francis a big building and billboard on the beach to show his girls gone wild videos. PCB needs to move forward and not backward with trashy businesses.
LikeLike
I agree!
LikeLike
Hey that”s a great idea, I have a building with a big sign I could rent Joe, OK lets think about it. I think most of you are adults and as an adult you should be able to under stand this is a free country and should be able to do what you want. Iam a 59 year old male and never entered a strip club in my life, and I change the channel on the TV if I don’t like what’s on. Get a life and stop trying to change the world. The last person that used the word (change) is trying to do just the same thing and he is finding that it’s still a FREE country.
Jim
LikeLike
“If you go to the Golden Nugget or the Toy Box, you can throw a rock and hit houses,” Harper said in a phone interview with the New Herald on Tuesday. “This is not a situation where it’s going to be a nuisance. People are pretty much going to be unaware that it’s going to be there.”
Well, I do not live within a stones throw of these establishments… I do live in the surrounding residential area. I am reminded of their existence and happenings on my daily drives. I can tell you… it is a nuisance. I see the immediate residential area degraded by the atmosphere created by these establishments. Additionally, but putting up with them, we are sending a message to our youth. Do the math.
Also a nuisance… owners of said establishments holding onto properties, leasing them to one failed “restaurant” after another only to maintain the right of opening another adult establishment should they choose to do so. I believe that any “new” business should be held to CURRENT zoning standards.
Just my humble opinion… I bet I’m not alone.
LikeLike
Unfortunately this industrial park is also home to a Gymnastics center for young children, a Day Care and an after school program facility, a youth league football field, a youth skate park and a Ballet studio. It is not exactly all ‘industrial’. These facilities operating into the evening hours and have a lot of coming and going involving children and pedestrians. I feel that adding an establishment serving cocktails to this neighborhood is a disaster waiting to happen. Not to mention that ‘some’ of the patrons (of course not the majority) do not always have the best of morals and should not be exposed to areas with children. I personally could care less if it re-opens or not however I do feel that the location, while out of the way and out of site, is still a poor choice for the family environment that is already in place there.
LikeLike
They need to put them all on 98 where the Toy Box and the Gold Nugget are and just have a little red light district. I dont know why they cant go back in the same place they used to be. Id rather them be out in the open than back there by Pete Edwards.
LikeLike
Bay county is such a backward, good ole boy, greedy place to live! Why do you always have to complain about what someone else does? Get over it and keep your noses out of other peoples business!
LikeLike
@Jim: I didn’t use the word “change”. You did. The business under discussion is currently not in business. To reopen it is to make a change. I don’t want that change. It’s not good for the PCB forward focus. I don’t want a change that goes backward in so many ways. I’d much rather have better shot at increasing property values in PCB. We have too many depressed properties on the beach now and to add this business is to add more of a trashy atmosphere, which reduces residental home values. In this free country, we have many laws, rules and standards of behavior that limit individual freedom for the well-being and safety of the majority. This is a free society, not a free-for-all society.
LikeLike
I’m not really for, or against reopening Show N Tail, but would the other industrial park out off of back beach and 79 be less of a nuisance and further away from residences? I don’t think they have any children related business out there and it is off of the tourist corridor.
LikeLike
This message to Commissioners and any parties who can stop the opening of this club.
Where is your duty to protect our area and in over seeing what is in the best interest of our area?
I vehemently oppose the reopening of this Club. We adults should be concerned about the reputation of our beautiful area and the example we are portraying to our visitors. Do we just overlook how important families visiting the Beach is to the local economy? Do we overlook the effect this club will have on the property values? I can not imagine how adults are willing to have such a distasteful, sinful, unacceptable facility in our area. I know parents love to bring their precious children to the beautiful beach. Parents are greatly against having their children forced to look at signs advertising such deplorable facilities.
LikeLike
I totally agree with jellen. And I wish they would take that sign down on Thomas Drive! ugly corner…
LikeLike
I have wasted a few dollars in one of these establishments. Hint: You can see a whole lot more on the beach. That’s disgusting, people should not allow their children on the beach!
I fail to understand why anyone would want to throw rocks at the houses around a strip bar. Maybe they should pass an ordinance to pave the parking lots.
LikeLike
If PCB is trying to move forward as a family beach and bring more tourism then this is not going to work. I recently moved here to be a part of the new PCB and I think this would be one more problem. Not sure why they just can’t go to the Toy Box or other establishments if they need that entertainment. Keep PCB clean and upcoming for a new and bright future!
I say, NO Way this should be a part of PCB.
LikeLike
“We cannot adopt the way of living that was satisfactory a hundred years ago. The world in which we live has changed, and we must change with it”. -thats a quote from Felix Adler. and thats what he would say about this business re-opening.
LikeLike
This is another indication the County Commission does not have a clue as to how to upgrade PCB. They want to hide behind a perceived verbal commitment to get around a zoning requirement. I don’t think a single commissioner has the best interest of PCB or the upgrading of the PCB image on their mind.
LikeLike
This is crazy….let’s move Forward not backwards! Let’s make PCB the beach for families!
LikeLike
I get the PCB Daily E-Mail every few days. Alot of what I read is everybody complaining about this issue or that one. People don’t like spring break, or a strip club. I have been here on spring break twice. I met my husband the first year, we made plans and met up the next year. We have 3 wonderful kids, and have been back on vacation on 3 occasions. If you want to make PCB more family friendly, then have your local officals go to Myrtle Beach. Its alot more family friendly with more activities for children. And they have Life Guards. And one other thing I have been to a strip club, a college friend work at one in college, she did not have a college debt.
LikeLike
Danielle, if you are saying it is worth the risk of depressing home values and tourism growth to provide a few young women the chance to spend their exotic dance earnings on college tuition, I disagree. The good of the many takes precedence over the few who might take the job to finance college. My guess is most of those young women would not be taking the job for the express purpose of avoiding student loans and the overall experience would not be so uplifting for most of them. This is a good time for the community to use that time-honored phrase “not in my backyard” and stand firm for the ‘upscale changes’ our leaders have been talking about for so long. And while I’m very happy for your family story, I believe young people can meet during spring break without the presence of strip clubs in PCB. We have many positive selling points here and don’t need to add another one that requires explaining away or hiding from national ads.
LikeLike
This is not the message we should be sending our children! If you have the need to indulge in these acts, you need to do it in the private of your own home. It is a free country and we also have the right to say that we don’t want these establishments where we live, work, and raise our family.
LikeLike
I’m anti the Show N Tail reopening, but I’m all for bringing back the Barney Gray!
LikeLike
I’m apposed to any place I have to pay to see boobies… when I can go to the public beach and see them for free! To all the people talking about PCB being a family place are we talking about the same PCB where bikini women fight on the counter at burger king? And almost all the locals drive jacked up monster trucks? Just currious..
LikeLike
Tig ole biddies! Let’s see em ladies! Spring break 4 eva!
LikeLike
I am not for the reopening of this joint and I for one will not be wasting my money here.
Its a sad, sad day when I have to go to PCB and pay to see women in bikini’s (Cause thats all they show in a bikini bar).
Not gonna do it.
Oh but I love the comment that it will depreciate home values. That is so funny. In an industrial park close to the mega clubs. ROTFLMAO
LikeLike