The Lubbock County Commissioner’s are mired in a game of cat and mouse with Bobby Cannon and his brother Lawrence, who are attempting to open a strip club in the city of Lubbock.
The commissioners rewrote the county's sexually oriented commercial enterprise regulations for the third time in a year last week, a move Cannon says is meant to ensure he’ll never get to open the Bare Elegant Show Club (B.E.S.C.).
Not that Cannon is intimidated by the slew of new regulations.
“My lawyer was really all smiles last night. They know good god damn well we’re about to sue them, “ Bobby Cannon told AVN.com
After years of trying to find a parcel of land that would conform with local ordinances that call for a 1500 ft separation between an adult establishments and residences, churches and schools – Bobby Cannon found the perfect spot to build in November; unfortunately, it was only the perfect spot for ten days.
Cannon’s application for a permit was denied because the land for the club was within 1500 ft. of a residence – someone had parked a trailer on land in the ten days that passed since the permit was filed.
The 17-foot five-wheel trailer didn’t even have electricity or water when it first appeared. A college student currently occupies the trailer.
The new regulations recently added includes expanding the definition of residence to include “mobile homes” or trailers, so that the tactic of placing a trailer on a piece of land so that an adult establishment will have their permit denied will still be legal.
Another new regulation calls for people to have the right to use the land before filing for permits. That means that the land must have already been bought, leased or rented before a permit can be granted. Aspiring adult business owners must post a notice on the land for 60 days prior to seeking a permit.
Also, potential business owners must list a physical address in their application and name the officers, directors and shareholders with more than a five percent stake in the business.
The state of the application is currently under dispute: the county claims that the application was pulled, and then re-filed. Cannon claims that he sent in an addendum to the original permit, but he never pulled the original applicatio
The original application offered a 30-day option to buy the land, but the owner of the land has already stated that he will not sell the land to Cannon, now that he knows what it is for.
Cannon has been convicted twice on misdemeanor charges of promoting prostitution that led to his spending less than a year in jail.
Cannon says those convictions stem from his hobby - he’s an amateur photographer who recruits women from Texas Tech for photos he sends to Playboy. His dealing with local officials have led to Cannon being nominated twice for the Hugh Hefner First Amendment Award.
No matter what the outcome is in Lubbock County for this round, Cannon assured AVN.com that his strip club will be built.
“We may start looking in some other Texas cities soon. I’m just not going to let it go down the drain – but sooner or later we’ll get one in here,” Cannon said. .
