A motion in Nassau County Supreme Court attempting to have a judge reverse his May decision upholding the Town of Hempstead zoning board’s rejection for North Bellmore strip club owner Billy Dean's cabaret application at a planned Wantagh business has been withdrawn.
The motion, which was postponed three times since early July, had been scheduled for Justice Antonio Brandveen’s Wednesday morning calendar. Susan Trenkle-Pokalsky, press secretary for the Town of Hempstead, said they received word Monday about the motion being dropped.
J. Stewart Moore, Dean's attorney who was handling the motion in Nassau County Supreme Court, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Dean’s suit filed against the Town of Hempstead that Justice Brandveen rejected this past spring argued that the Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) should have never revoked its original June 2010 approval for cabaret usage on the 3500 Sunrise Hwy. parcel. The suit also pointed out that the property, which Dean acquired in 2009 for $950,000, has had cabaret usage for previously opened bars and restaurants going back to the late 1960s.
Dean's chief legal counsel, zoning attorney William Cohn of Uniondale, has filed an appeal at the State Supreme Court Appellate Division, a process expected to take months. In addition to fighting to open his Wantagh property, Dean is also awaiting a ruling from the Hempstead Town Board of Appeals on a request to renew a cabaret permit at Billy Dean’s Showtime Café in North Bellmore.
The Hempstead BZA’s rejection of Dean’s cabaret application came in the midst of community protests that mounted against him because of fears he would operate his Wantagh business similar to Billy Dean's Showtime Cafe, which is advertised on its website as "Long Island’s No. 1 strip club." A cabaret license would permit Dean to offer live music, dancing and entertainment, but no topless or nude performers.
Billy Dean’s website provides a link with information that describes the planned Wantagh venue as one that will offer dinner entertainment with audience participation catering to bachelor, bachelorette and birthday parties. Dean described his planned establishment during a May 18, 2011 zoning board hearing as one that would feature “a Las Vegas style feel” with jugglers, knife throwers and dancers.
