Zoning Board to Reopen Billy Dean's Wantagh Application

In the midst of heavy being mounted by concerned Wantagh residents over a potential strip club moving into their neighborhood, Hempstead town leaders are now joining the fight in an attempt to halt the project on 3500 Sunrise Hwy.

Early this morning the Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) scheduled a rehearing for its case related to a restaurant/cabaret facility being constructed on 3500 Sunrise Hwy. The new hearing scheduled for May 18 comes after Hempstead Town Supervisor Kate Murray and Councilwoman Angie Cullin, R-Freeport, sent a formal letter to the town’s Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) yesterday requesting that they re-open its decision last spring to grant North Bellmore strip club owner Billy Dean a cabaret license for his acquired Wantagh property.

Many Wantagh and Seaford residents have expressed concerns that Dean, who owns a strip club called  in North Bellmore, will run a similar establishment at his newly acquired Wantagh property unless the cabaret license he received is revoked. Last spring the Hempstead BZA granted Dean a special exception for public assembly and amusement including cabaret, live music, dancing and entertainment.

Charles Kovit, deputy senior attorney for the Town of Hempstead, announced the town’s intention to aggressively fight what is planned for 3500 Sunrise Hwy. during Tuesday night’s (WSHA) meeting attended by dozens of people at . Kovit the BZA has the authority to re-visit Dean’s application under a provision of the New York State Town Law.

“The supervisor and councilwoman do not want something like this, something as potentially damaging as this, to go through without the public really given full information and evidence of the possible dangers to area character and property values that might be a by-product of having what we now know to be a potential strip joint,” said Kovit. “We believe that the time has come to really re-access and possibly do away with the kind of cabaret, which we all know now very clearly was not made apparent at the first hearing.”

The town’s decision to take an active position in trying to reverse the BZA’s approval of Dean’s application comes on the heels of more than 20 residents holding a protest against the idea of a strip club in Wantagh this past Sunday. Many of the protesters flocked to Tuesday night’s WSHA meeting to voice their displeasure that Dean’s cabaret license was approved in the first place given the strip club operation he has run in North Bellmore.

“The town attorneys should have been all over this from the very beginning,” said Wantagh resident Kevin Milano, who organized this past Sunday’s rally and is planning another protest for this Saturday at 10:30 a.m. in front of 3500 Sunrise Hwy.

Dean's attorney Bill Cohn would not comment on the zoning board's decision to reopen his client's case, but expressed frustration at opponents judging his client's planned business before it opens. "I do find the mob mentality that has gathered against this establishment, which has not even opened yet, purely on speculation to be outrageous and unjustified," said Cohn.

Dean Patch last November that he was not planning to have any adult entertainment at his new Wantagh business and it would instead be operated as a dinner club with “unique comedy acts.”

The Billy Dean's Showtime Cafe website describes the unnamed Wantagh facility as a "full service restaurant" that "will feature dinner and show theatrical production packages with various types of variety entertainment." The description of the planned business said the club will "cater to anniversary, birthday, bachelorette, bachelor parties or groups of friends looking for a new twist for an exciting evening."

The Hempstead BZA granted Dean’s cabaret license on the condition that there be no nude entertainment and that no employees be topless or bottomless. However a cabaret license still allows for use of G-Strings, pasties and other sexually provocative outfits and accessories that would resemble a strip club.

The May 18 hearing is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. at the Nathan L. H. Bennett Pavilion at Hempstead Town Hall in Hempstead Village.

“Neighbors have expressed concerns and a rehearing will give residents a greater opportunity to be heard on this issue," said Murray in a statement.

“I encourage neighbors to attend the reopened hearing on this matter,” said Cullin, whose district includes Wantagh  “Supervisor Murray and I will work with residents to protect the suburban character of our neighborhoods.”

Kovit emphasized that if Dean decides to fight the town’s efforts to revisit his approval they will be prepared to wage battle. “If the owner of the property kicks and screams, let him kick and scream and we will take him on tooth and nail,” said Kovit, drawing thunderous applause at the WSHA meeting. “Under state law we have the ability to make things right.”