Stanton Officials Lose Two-Year Legal Battle With Adult Bookstore

Stanton officials lost a two-year battle against the city’s only adult bookstore Wednesday when a judge ruled that they may not legally zone Earmark Books & Video Center out of business.

Superior Court Judge Leonard H. McBride decided that an ordinance designed to keep adult entertainment areas away from churches, schools, residential neighborhoods and playgrounds “effectively denied” Earmark a reasonable chance of doing business in the city.

About 2,300 people signed petitions opposing the bookstore, and dozens of residents picketed when Earmark opened last year in a shopping center at Beach Boulevard and Orangewood Avenue near a residential neighborhood.

‘Children Now Unprotected’

“Families and children are now unprotected in our belief in the inviolable dignity of the human person and the sacredness of human sexuality,” said Father Lawrence Baird of St. Polycarp Catholic Church, a parish church of 4,000 families, who helped organize the protests last year.

City Atty. Thomas Allen said he was “very disappointed in the decision.”

“We were not trying to eliminate these stores from the city. We just wanted them to locate away from the main neighborhoods,” he said.

Allen said an appeal is possible.

The bookstore did not challenge the city’s power to restrict the location of adult entertainment businesses, said Earmark attorney Roger Jon Diamond. But, he said, none of the locations allowed by the ordinance was feasible.

“It was like if you said in Los Angeles, the only place you can operate a bookstore is at Dodger Stadium. Well, what do you do? Spend $20 million to buy the stadium and tear it down?” Diamond said.

‘3 or 4’ Legal Spots

The ordinance restricted adult bookstores generally to manufacturing areas. In addition, no bookstore could be opened within 500 feet of schools, the city’s three churches, its playgrounds or residential neighborhoods.

“There were three or four spots in the city where we could legally operate, but what you find is a huge industrial warehouse or railroad tracks. The land is theoretically available, but you couldn’t really function there,” Diamond said.

In a two-day trial in October, Diamond played an hourlong videotape which showed the spots where bookstores could operate.

McBride’s tentative decision, made public Wednesday, quoted from a U.S. Supreme Court decision earlier this year which upheld a Renton, Wash., ordinance restricting adult bookstore locations.

The decision upheld a far-ranging use of municipal zoning power to either concentrate adult entertainment in one area or widely scatter such businesses.

Owners’ rights to free expression are not violated when an ordinance leaves them “reasonable opportunity” to operate within city limits, according to the high court.

Others Joined in Protests

McBride’s decision found that “the City of Stanton did ‘effectively’ deny (Earmark) a reasonable opportunity to open and operate an adult theater within the city.”

St. Polycarp’s Baird said two other churches had joined in the demonstrations against the store, along with civic groups and youth clubs.

“We are a neighborhood, a family community, and (the ruling) indicates that the people’s will here has not prevailed,” Baird said. “It has been clear that the people of Stanton, as represented by the council, have clearly indicated that we did not want the bookstore in an area that’s surrounded by neighborhoods and families.”

City Atty. Allen said he found McBride’s one-page ruling difficult to understand. He said the city has even amended its ordinance “to afford a greater area of the city where adult businesses could locate.”

Earmark manager Ginger Cox could not be reached for comment.

Baird declined to specify what his parish of 4,000 families may do in the future.

“We will never be content so long as pornography is readily available to our people,” Baird said.