High Court to Rule on Right to Limit Adult Theater Sites
The Supreme Court today agreed to decide how far communities may go in restricting where adult movie theaters locate.
The court’s eventual decision in a case from Renton, Wash., could clarify whether communities may use zoning laws to restrict the locations of new adult theaters.
In a 1976 decision, the high court allowed Detroit to require the dispersal of adult theaters--no two could locate within 1,000 feet of each other.
The court said then that cities may not ban such theaters but may control where they locate.
Renton, a Seattle suburb that had no adult theaters, passed an ordinance that limited the location of such theaters to certain areas within the city. The ordinance was challenged in 1982 by Playtime Theatres Inc. and Kukio Bay Properties Inc. A federal trial judge upheld Renton’s zoning ordinance, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned it last Nov. 28.
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