A good omen? Fort Lauderdale now allows more fortune tellers to set up shop

All signs point to success for psychics hoping to launch businesses in Fort Lauderdale.

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On Wednesday, the Fort Lauderdale City Commission unanimously approved an update to a city zoning regulation to allow retail stores to offer readings by fortune tellers and psychics. While psychic readers have storefronts in other parts of the city, this change applies to the Community Business and Boulevard Business zoning districts, which previously did not permit soothsaying.

That includes areas along Federal Highway, Sunrise Boulevard and East Las Olas Boulevard.

While Mayor Dean Trantalis was fine with the change, he was admittedly confused by why it was on the agenda in the first place. He couldn’t help but laugh while reading the ordinance.

“Why are we doing this?” Trantalis said, chuckling. “Is there a demand for this? Is someone knocking on our door?”

No one, psychic or otherwise, signed up to speak during public comment about the ordinance. “They know how it’s gonna work out!” Commissioner Steven Glassman joked.

In a matter of minutes, the commissioners all voted to approve the amendment. (Commissioner John Herbst was not present.)

According to city documents, the story behind the ordinance change dates back to the early 2000s, when scandalous stories of fraudulent South Florida psychics made headlines.

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In 2005, the City of Fort Lauderdale was hit with a lawsuit after it refused to issue a business tax receipt to a fortune-teller business in an area not zoned for it.

Meanwhile, the city cited other fortunetellers for “conducting fortunetelling without an occupational license” at a property in the same district, according to a Fort Lauderdale Planning and Zoning Board staff report. In 2006, the city commission settled the lawsuits by allowing the businesses to offer fortunetelling as “ancillary uses.”

But the problem came up again 20 years later. At a Nov. 18 city commission meeting, the city manager told the commission that the plaintiffs from the original 2005 case, Gary Miller and Selina Metlow, moved their business from Federal Highway to a new location on Las Olas Boulevard.

A city code inspector said they were violating city codes, so they filed a new lawsuit last year, according to court documents. The lawsuit argued it was unfair to bar psychics when other businesses that “involve the foretelling of future events” — like financial advisors, lawyers, life coaches, business consultants and doctors — were allowed in the same zoning district.

The new suit led to the ordinance to allow fortunetelling in certain parts of Fort Lauderdale once and for all, according to city documents. A woman who answered the business’s phone declined to comment on the city commission’s vote.

Spiritual readings are part of daily life for many South Floridians. For decades, metaphysical stores and botanicas have sold religious items and offered spiritual cleansings and readings in spite of stigmatization and gentrification.

This summer, Fort Lauderdale police said they enlisted the help of a psychic to help crack a cold case, the disappearance of 15-year-old Sophie Reeder.

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