We got broadsided at the hearing by a lady who stood up and talked about us providing a place for teenagers to have sex. She expounded on this for 45 minutes.

Needless to say we didn't get the permit. Theatre still sitting vacant.

"Well I see Mrs. Jones is intimately acquainted with sex in drive-in movie theatres..."
"I heartily recommend that bedrooms be banned in our fine community..."
"The problems with sex within the church are now well documented, should we ban churches as well?..."
"I'm curious why Mr. Jones has so little to add to his wife's commentary..."

Most people with objections to drive-ins manage to go "over-the-top" and leave themselves wide open for rebuttal. Rebuttal comments can kill some of these objections if the board is generally in favor of a project. Board members, being political animals, just need someone to fend off or parry the heat of the ultra-conservatives. To do so on their own would be political suicide, and to have the petitioner get directly involved in such a match would not have a good effect.

That said, provision for ramp men and proper maintaining of order in a drive in is important. The use of off-duty police on Friday and Saturday nights can ease a lot of concerns and make friends. This should be brought up in meetings, but in a way that it doesn't become a requirement for operation on slow nights.

I know how the zoning board meetings can go. At our first attempt to put a drive-in theatre in this county, we were met with 80+/- people in opposition in the court room the day of the meeting.

The small "Missionary Baptist Church" next door to our property brought out everyone they could. The lady across the street claimed all we were going to do was "show X-rated movies, and the drive-in customers would leave the drive-in late at night, cross the highway and try to swim in her pool". The owner of the retirement home (about a 1/2 mile away) said, "the traffic created by the drive-in would hinder the response time of the emergency medical teams from promptly attending to the needs of her residents".

What's kind of scary is.... the guy who bought our first property next door to the church, lives DIRECTLY across the street from our current selected property!!

I did meet with the county building inspector yesterday to file our paperwork for our upcoming zoning hearing on the 19th of April. When I asked her about the "paving requirement", she said... "let's not mention it - only address the issue if they ask".

I left feeling pretty good about the situation, but very confused! So far, the building inspector and the county planning director have been very helpful to our endeavor, and the planning director seems to think that the drive-in will be a "novelty" for the community. This town we're moving to has a thriving "antique district" on the town square, and he said the drive-in should fit in nicely with the history of the town.

------------------
Barry Floyd
Floyd Entertainment Group
Nashville, Tennessee
(Drive-In Theatre - Start-Up)