By Daily Press staff
How to balance sex shops’ right to operate while balancing community concerns is a discussion elected leaders have put off.
The City Council on Tuesday decided to postpone indefinitely its discussion of an ordinance that would update and amend how Santa Monica regulates its adult businesses. The council put off the discussion because of timing issues related to the evening’s agenda.
Studies show that adult businesses increase the amount of crime and decrease property values in a neighborhood, according to a staff report. This is especially true when adult businesses become concentrated in a given area.
Currently, adult businesses are supposed to be located 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 would attempt 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.
According to the 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 location restrictions in the proposed ordinance would leave 1 to 1.5 percent of the land within Santa Monica available to adult businesses, placing City Hall in better compliance with current case law, according to the staff report. Jive talking: Activist, City Hall to be honored
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 29, 2005. Read the original PDF.