Escondido Shaves Sex Shop Buffer to 500 Feet, Opening New Territory

Much of the city’s downtown area, previously off limits to such “adult businesses” as sex-oriented bookstores, strip joints, massage parlors and X-rated movie houses, has become open territory now that the City Council has significantly watered down an ordinance restricting where such business can be located.

The action came in the midst of a legal confrontation with the owners of an adult video movie outlet and bookstore that violated the city’s adult entertainment ordinance prohibiting such businesses from locating within 1,000 feet of churches, schools, parks and homes.

Wednesday night, the City Council amended the ordinance to say that a 500-foot buffer is sufficient.

With the action, the council opened up much of the Valley Parkway corridor through the central part of the city, which because of the 1,000-foot buffer law generally had been off limits to the adult businesses.

The City Council took the action after U.S. District Judge Edward Schwartz on Monday issued a preliminary injunction temporarily preventing the city from shutting down Video Specialties, in the 2300 block of South Escondido Boulevard.

The business, city officials say, is 320 feet from the nearest home and 520 feet from a preschool.

Schwartz said that, given the 1,000-foot buffer restriction, it was unclear whether the city had provided sufficient alternative sites for adult businesses.

The U.S. Supreme Court has allowed cities to limit the locations of adult businesses, but not so tightly as to effectively ban them altogether. The owners of Video Specialties had claimed that with the 1,000-foot buffer there were only three locations, totaling 15 acres, where they could set up shop. Compounding the restriction, they said, was the fact that there were no buildings available at those sites. The business thus was virtually banned from the city, its attorney argued.

City Atty. Dave Chapman said Thursday that, by reducing the buffer zone to 500 feet, an additional 270 acres now are available for adult business uses, including “many acres of prime commercial locations” in the downtown area. By reducing the buffer, the city has assured the constitutionality of its law, he said.

“As a practical matter, we would be unable to enforce the (1,000-foot buffer) ordinance against anyone else who wanted to conduct an adult business in town,” Chapman said. “So by amending it, we have opened up sufficient number of areas to ensure the ordinance is constitutional and enforceable, so we can continue to have some regulatory control over adult businesses.”

The effect of the city’s action as far as Video Specialties is concerned was unclear Thursday.

Schwartz may rule that the store can remain where it is because the 1,000-foot buffer to which it was subjected was unconstitutional, despite the fact that the City Council has since amended the law, Chapman speculated.

Or Schwartz may still decide that the 1,000-foot buffer was legal and that Video Specialties still must move, Chapman said.

Or, he said, Schwartz may rule that while the initial ordinance was unconstitutional, the amended law is OK and Video Specialties must now abide by it--and still move, since it is within 500 feet of a home.

Roger Diamond, attorney for Video Specialties, argued Thursday that the business should be allowed to remain at its present address--even if there is a home within 500 feet of the store.

“The adoption of the urgency ordinance is an admission that the city’s original ordinance was no good,” Diamond said. “Assuming the new ordinance is valid, we were there (doing business) in advance of its adoption Wednesday night, so it shouldn’t affect us. We are grandfathered in. And we will drop the lawsuit against the city if the city agrees not to bother us anymore.”

Chapman refused to discuss the city’s next step, or whether the city would continue to press Video Specialties to move.

One city official speculated, however, that since the store is less obtrusive at its current location than it would be at a downtown location, the city may drop the matter altogether.