In the latest development in an ongoing battle between strip club XTC Cabaret and San Antonio officials, a state district judge has denied the city’s request to shut the club down, the San Antonio Express-News reports.
Judge Laura Salinas this week turned down the city’s request for a temporary restraining order. Her ruling occurs as the club enters its second month of operating without a certificate of occupancy.
“All we’re asking from the court is that XTC be ordered to follow the law,” Assistant City Attorney Savita Rai told the Express-News Tuesday. “The law is you have to have a certificate of occupancy to operate. They do not have one. Thus, they should not be operating.”
According to the daily, the strip club and the city have batted in five lawsuits since December.
The city wants to close the club and board up the building for a year, according to its legal filings. Rather than focus on recent pandemic code violations in its suit, the city alleges the club is a hive of criminal activity — a claim the club denies.
XTC reopened its doors February 25 without a certificate of occupancy, prompting the city to cut off power and water to the business. XTC got around that by bringing in a truck-sized generator and an “external water supply source.”
The city has been issuing citations against the club each day it’s been operating without the C of O — which carries a fine of up to $500 a day — and for failing to comply with orders to vacate the property, which can cost up to $2,000 per day, according the Express-News‘ reporting.
Representatives of the club told the daily that state District Judge Mary Lou Alvarez decided in a December 18 hearing that the the city didn’t have legal authority to revoke the club’s certificate of occupancy, but that ruling doesn’t appear to have been conveyed in a written order.
It’s unclear why a written order wasn’t filed, but XTC reopened February 25 anyway, sans certificate of occupancy, the Express-News reports.
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This article appears in Mar 10-23, 2021.