Sat 15 Dec 2007
Controversial Allen teen club Toxic told to close
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Allen: Zoning issues cited; some called atmosphere too adult
ALLEN – To the Allen police officer who walked through Club Toxic on Nov. 30, the teen nightclub looked instead like a strip club.
And a youth leader from a nearby church who visited the club earlier that night said the atmosphere – more Deep Ellum than Collin County – concerned her the minute she saw the dance floor.
“There was a cage elevated above the floor with girls dancing in it,” said Stephanie Schuurman, 22, a youth leader for The Harvest Church. “Some were using it like they were pole dancing. I’d been to clubs when I was in college, and I’d never seen a cage.”
In a Dec. 5 letter, the city ordered Club Toxic to close by today. But it wasn’t concerns about the club’s atmosphere that led to its shutdown. It didn’t have proper zoning to operate a dance club for teens, so the city revoked the business’s certificate of occupancy.
A club representative listed on city documents did not respond to phone messages left Friday seeking comment, and a call to the phone number listed on the club’s Web site and MySpace page wasn’t returned.
David Hoover, Allen’s planning director, said the club could reopen if the City Council granted it a specific use permit, though no application has been submitted.
Council member Gary Caplinger said that he’s open to hearing the owner’s perspective. He said that teenagers in Allen need places to hang out, but he would want to ensure that any such business was appropriate for the city. He said all he knew about the club was what he had heard from discussion around town and from Ms. Schuurman, who spoke about Club Toxic at Tuesday’s council meeting.
“On the surface, from what I’ve heard, it’s something I wouldn’t want my kids going to,” Mr. Caplinger said. “But we’ve only heard one side.”
Club Toxic is in a strip center, adjacent to a Brookshire’s grocery store on Greenville Avenue and Main Street. The 11,000-square-foot club is fairly nondescript, save for the corrugated metal sign out front. Inside darkly tinted doors, an entryway with yellow metal drums is visible; inside a side door, there are some games including an air hockey table.
The club’s MySpace page describes it as the “biggest party for teens EVER in Texas,” with two dance floors, pool tables, an arcade and VIP rooms. It was open 7 to 11:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and charged $10 cover, according to the page.
Allen police Officer Ty Latham, in an e-mail to Lt. Richard Deggs, said he went into Club Toxic after talking to a woman parked in a car across the street. She told him she had dropped her 13-year-old daughter off there but was concerned about girls dressed inappropriately and “questionable characters” inside.
“We walked in the business, and … I thought it was a gentlemen’s club,” Officer Latham wrote. “On the other side of the [dance] floor there was a large white screen that had 2 girls behind it where you could see their silhouette. These girls were dancing together in a provocative nature.”
Both Officer Latham and Ms. Schuurman said they were concerned about a lack of security at the club. And the officer said he thought the club could become a “problem for the police and the community.”
“The business was dark inside, the bouncers all had flashlights due to the darkness,” he wrote. “I am concerned about drug usage inside and other illegal activity. The owner did state that all kids had to walk through a metal detector, but we didn’t see one or even wands for that matter.”
Ms. Schuurman said she first heard about the club when several girls missed an event at the church that night. She found out they were getting ready to go to the new club and went to the restaurant where they were hanging out. She told them that if they still wanted to go, she would bring them to the club after the church event, which she did.
“They were trying to set up an atmosphere like an adult club,” she said. “There were lounge areas in the back. Kids were all on each other, and two couples were making out.”
She said her concerns were about not just safety but also the message that teens would receive.
“It’s one thing for an 18-year-old to go to a nightclub,” she said. “At 13, 14, we’re teaching these girls that it’s OK to get attention from guys like this.”
See the article here http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/121507dnmetclubtoxic.227b9d3.html
