Retail in, parlor tricks out
CITY HALL — Community concerns about neighborhood sex shops have prompted city officials to re-evaluate how they regulate adult entertainment in Santa Monica.
As a result, city officials took steps this week to expand the areas in which sex shops can operate while cracking down on prostitution operations that front as massage parlors.
City Attorney Marsha Moutrie explained to the City Council this week that a sex shop that opened on Lincoln Boulevard earlier this year has rekindled debate about the regulation of such establishments in Santa Monica. Acting on resident complaints, City Hall is tweaking its laws to better balance sex shops’ right to operate while attempting to combat the negative effects believed to be associated with them. In addition, City Hall is tackling what some call a more prevalent problem of illicit massage parlors that continue to proliferate within city limits.
“There have been questions about the efficacy of the location of various types of adult businesses,” Moutrie told the City Council on Tuesday. “There are (also) 51 businesses licensed as massage parlors. However, we believe about 25 percent of them do not operate legitimately.”
Studies show sex shops — stores that sell certain clothing, toys and videos — increase the amount of crime and decrease property values in a neighborhood, Moutrie said. She presented a stack of evidence to support the claim at the council meeting. The adverse effects are especially true when adult businesses become concentrated in a specific area, she said.
Currently, adult businesses are only permitted along parts of Lincoln and Pico boulevards and east of downtown, between Colorado Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard, and Fifth and Seventh streets. The updated ordinance attempts to expand where adult businesses may be located throughout Santa Monica and better define what an “adult entertainment” business is. Due to recent changes in the legal climate, city officials are concerned that if they don’t update the ordinance, it opens the city to liability if adult businesses sue over their right to set up shop in Santa Monica.
The new ordinance would allow adult businesses to be located in the Bayside commercial district and the downtown overlay areas, a total area that would range between Colorado Avenue and Wilshire Boulevard and Second and Seventh streets.
According to a staff report, allowing other areas to have adult businesses would enable City Hall to better comply with constitutional concerns. Generally speaking, the courts have prohibited cities from zoning out adult businesses in order to protect the business rights of operators. Thus, any restrictions City Hall has on adult businesses must leave adequate sites available for demand. At the same time, staff seeks to make the sites far enough away from each other to prevent the adverse effects of adult businesses concentrated in a particular area of the community.
The new ordinance would allow 1 to 1.5 percent of the land within Santa Monica available to adult businesses, making City Hall in better compliance with current case law, Moutrie said. As a result of the changes to its sex shop laws, City Hall feels it will be able to avoid lawsuits that may open the city up to a colonization of adult-oriented businesses, officials said on Tuesday.
“Let me make sure I’m hearing this right,” said City Councilman Bobby Shriver to Moutrie. “If we’re not careful, we might lose all of our power to regulate these types of businesses?”
Moutrie agreed.
Spacing requirements under the updated ordinance would remain the same. Therefore, it would continue to be illegal to locate an adult business within 500 feet of a residential district.
Several new provisions also would be added. For example, City Hall would be allowed to impose conditions on a business license and restrict the sale or transfer of the business. Also, signs visible from off-site that depict sexual activities or certain anatomical parts would be prohibited.
Aside from illicit “massage” parlors, staff identified only three sex shops in Santa Monica. The most recently established is “Secret Desires,” a retail store that spurned controversy when it opened for business this year, due to its clear visibility off Lincoln Boulevard and its close proximity to residential neighborhoods, officials said.
In addition to Secret Desires, a video store called “The Odyssey” has been situated on Wilshire Boulevard for several years, and a lingerie boutique, “Nighties & Naughties,” which also features an adult video section, is located on Main Street.
Ironically, The Odyssey and Nighties & Naughties would still be outside of the expanded zone. However, officials said because those places are established, it would be legally difficult to require they move. However, city officials said they have received few complaints about those shops.
Representatives from all three stores said they are unsure of the ordinance’s specifics and declined to comment.
Community members, including neighborhood groups, applauded City Hall’s efforts on Tuesday and requested that any new laws “have teeth” that may be easily enforced.
Nina Fresco, a Santa Monica resident who chairs the city’s landmarks commission and lives near Secret Desires, said she hopes the new law will still keep plenty of distance between sex shops and her children.
“When my boys are at the age they start hiding girlie magazines under their beds, I hope they don’t have to walk 10 feet away from home to get them,” Fresco said.
Moutrie also asked the City Council to advise her on concerns pertaining to massage parlors.
In Santa Monica, there are 51 businesses licensed for massage, with 785 permitted massage technicians, according to a staff report. Police and prosecutors estimate 25 percent of those businesses engage in unlawful operations, namely prostitution. The problem has existed in Santa Monica for years and has proven resistant to enforcement, the staff report said.
In July, a federal grand jury handed indictments to 24 people, including one Santa Monica business owner, each charged for their roles in a human smuggling scheme. The indictment alleges the individuals were responsible for bringing hundreds of South Korean women into the United States to work as prostitutes. The accused, who law enforcement agencies have been investigating since at least September, include Mee Suk Lee, owner of Gold Spa at 1844 14th Street, which is listed as a chiropractic clinic. They are facing charges related to their alleged harboring and trafficking of women for prostitution.
In order to reduce the number of illicit massage parlors, the City Council granted Moutrie permission to explore ways to prevent loop holes in the current licensing laws, as well as develop methods for stricter enforcement, officials said.
Having consulted with the Santa Monica police and City Hall’s business licensing division, the proposed law would require massage technicians to be fingerprinted in an effort to weed out prostitutes, according to the staff report.
There also will be greater restrictions on how businesses transfer licenses in order to reduce the ability for prostitution rings to continue.
The City Council approved the ordinance for adult businesses and is waiting for a law new to be drafted regarding massage parlors.
Still, some elected officials on Tuesday said they were more concerned about health and security risks associated with illicit massage shops than strict approaches to sexuality.
“You don’t find prostitutes in massage parlors in the Netherlands,” Councilman Kevin McKeown said. “You find them somewhere else.
“I have concerns about the repressive machinery of sexuality in this country.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 15, 2005. Read the original PDF.