City mulls tattoo shops

The Key West Planning Board will have a special meeting Monday to develop recommendations on the number and location of tattoo shops that would be allowed to open on the island if the city's ban on them is struck down.

The city banned tattoo shops 40 years ago at the request of Navy officials, who did not want sailors getting tattoos. The investors in Key West Ink, 717 Duval St., are suing the city, claiming the regulation violates their constitutional rights to freedom of expression. One of the investors, Jim McAlhany, recently asked city commissioners to work with him instead of fighting him on creating a safe and healthy place for people to get tattoos. The shop now does body-painting and henna tattoos.

If the City Commission approves, Bethel wants no more than two or three tattoo shops on Duval Street, he said, adding that the city could hold a lottery for the licenses.

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500 RV spots planned

But the Navy has a problem in early going

The U.S. Navy this week released the newest rendering of its noise and safety contour maps, putting a potential obstacle in the path of Cay Clubs and others looking to develop a project in the vicinity of Naval Air Station Key West.

Navy spokesman Jim Brooks and Ron Demes, the Navy's business manager and top civilian employee, say conceptual plans by Cay Clubs to convert a 40-acre parcel of undeveloped land on Boca Chica into an RV park is not compatible with the AICUZ.

“The AICUZ is not meant to be anti-development,” Brooks said. “It's all about compatible use.

The chunk of land owned by the Alfred M. Sears Trust has seven deep-dredged canals known locally as the sub pens. The parcel is nestled in the middle of government land, accessible to U.S. 1 by a restricted access road across Navy land.