Neighbors, churches ramp up opposition to new home for R-rated circus shows in Oneco
Neighbors are stepping up their opposition to a circus locating in Oneco as the Manatee County Commission prepares to vote on a zoning change Thursday requested by Cirque Italia.
“We are adamantly opposed,” Pastor Bill Bailey of Happy Gospel Church said Wednesday.
A night club or dance hall would not be allowed in the neighborhood, and neither should the circus, which presents adult-themed paranormal shows, he said.
Jo Bell, an 11-year resident of Oneco, was collecting petitions Wednesday, saying that the planned 52,000-square-foot performance area and a 20,000-square-foot multi-use building on 5.6 acres at 1623 53rd Ave. E., is incompatible with churches and schools in the area.
The circus is proposed for the site where Oneco Glass Company operated for many years.
The Manatee County Planning Commission voted 4-3 in May to recommend passage of the zoning request. The request will go before the Manatee County Commission’s Land Use Meeting on Thursday.
Louisa Nealon, marketing manager for Cirque Italia, said Wednesday that the circus travels around the United States, and that the content has not been a problem in the communities it visits.
“We are always welcomed wherever we go. People are always asking on social media when are we coming back?” she said.
“We have two family shows and our paranormal show for diversity in the circus arts. It’s like going to the movies where you can choose to see an R-rated movie or a PG movie,” Nealon said, comparing the horror theme to Halloween night at a tourist attraction.
Margi Nanney, one of the Oneco neighbors opposed to the rezoning, said the planning commission was negligent when it recommended passage.
Cirque Italia had no answers for many traffic safety, access, drainage and private property encroachment issues, she said.
“This is not a compatible land use for this area. The Florida Department of Transportation has not approved one of the accesses they presented. Planners fabricated a niche in the code calling the project a theater. This is not a theater, it’s a circus in a tent,” Nanney said.
There were 145 notices sent to residences within 500 feet of the property where rezoning is being sought, Nanney said.
In response, community activists mailed out 1,500 notices and contacted the churches, schools, day care, businesses and as many residents as possible to let them know about this.
“The circus will create even more dangerous traffic conditions and the R-rated ‘paranormal’ circus that includes mature adult material is not appropriate for our neighborhood. The group feels a rezone will create a dangerous precedent for future development in this area,” Nanny said.
In an emailed letter to the Bradenton Herald, Oneco resident Ruth Newsome said the the rezoning process has not given residents sufficient time to respond.
“We do not want an R-rated circus in Oneco. Why call it a circus when 17-year-olds have to be accompanied by an adult?,” Newsome said.
Bailey has served as pastor of Happy Gospel Church for more than three decades.
“I know my community. The Oneco community is a beautiful mix of people from all walks of life. Cirque Italia doesn’t represent nor better Oneco,” Bailey said.
Multiple churches, including Happy Gospel, First Baptist Oneco, Iglesia Hispana Church, Community Baptist Church, and Oneco United Methodist Church are all within walking distance, he said.
Multiple schools and daycares are either directly connected or within walking distance. This property has residential housing all around it. Providing a proper ingress and egress for upwards to 400 attendees per show would be most challenging at best, Bailey said.
Cirque Italia proposes to have no more than 40 performance days on the Oneco property, with no events lasting more than 20 days, including set up, tear down and removal. The shows would be presented in a 53-foot-tall circus tent, which would be removed after each engagement.
In recent years, Cirque Italia has presented its shows in the Riviera Dunes area of Palmetto without incident, said attorney Scott Rudacille, who represented the circus before the planning commission.
Cirque Italia has no animals in its act and would not sell alcohol, he said.
Rather than hurting the Oneco community, the planned Cirque Italia improvements would clean up a neglected area and bring businesses, a restaurant, apartments and the company’s corporate headquarters to the property, Nealon said.
“It will be a high standard, beautiful product and encourage other investors,” she said.
The Land Use Meeting starts at 9 a.m. in the Patricia M. Glass Chambers on the first floor of the Manatee County Administration Building, 1112 Manatee Ave. W., Bradenton.
The commission has several items of business on its agenda and has not designated a time certain for the Cirque Italia request.
