L.A. Begins Drive to Close Many Sex-Oriented Outlets

Los Angeles city officials began taking steps Tuesday to shut down more than 50 sex-oriented businesses located close to residential neighborhoods as an ordinance cracking down on such establishments took effect.

Violation notices were distributed among Department of Building and Safety inspectors who will cite owners of adult bookstores, massage parlors, bathhouses and movie theaters located within 500 feet of homes.

Inspectors will spend this week checking existing sites and determining which are actually in violation of the law, said Jim Carney, chief inspector for the Department of Building and Safety’s Bureau of Community Safety. He expects many of those to be closed within two weeks.

Close to 90 such businesses ultimately will be affected by the ordinance, which was adopted in 1986, but which did not take effect until this week. Of those, 30 have applied for three-year extensions, while several others have already gone out of business in anticipation of the ordinance’s enforcement.

A list compiled by Building and Safety inspectors in preparation for enforcement shows most of the now-illegal establishments are concentrated in Hollywood, the Melrose area, downtown Los Angeles, North Hollywood and Van Nuys.

While the law officially took effect Sunday, requests for extensions still can be submitted, Deputy City Atty. Claudia McGee-Henry said. Businesses can stay open until March, 1991, if they can prove that they have a long-term lease, have a substantial investment in the property or cannot find a comparable location within non-residential areas. An exemption will be granted only after a public hearing on a case.

The ordinance, which represented a big victory for angry residents when the City Council unanimously passed it two years ago, gives city officials the authority to order sex-oriented business owners in residential neighborhoods to close down. If they fail to do so, they will face criminal prosecution as soon as 15 days after they receive notice.

Owners of such businesses have indicated that they will challenge the new ordinance in court, claiming that the city is actually trying to put them out of business, not just move them away from homes.

David M. Brown, an attorney for 20 adult entertainment establishments--primarily bookstores and video arcades in Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley--said Tuesday that if adult businesses are forced out of busy retail areas in residential neighborhoods, they will eventually go out of business.

“These are retail businesses, and what they need for success is the same as any other retail businesses--they need traffic, they need to be where the people are,” Brown said. “Removing them from the public view is pretty much doing away with them.”

Challenge Planned

Brown added he plans to apply for extensions under the ordinance for most of the businesses he represents, and if that fails, he will challenge the constitutionality of the ordinance.

But city officials said they are sure of their legal footing.

The new ordinance, they said, is not designed to drive the businesses from the city altogether but to get them away from homes. Ordinances already on the books keep such businesses away from parks, churches and schools. In addition, there are limits on how close one sex-oriented business can be located to another.

“The ordinance is not intended to wipe them out,” city Zoning Administrator Franklin Eberhard said. “It’s intended to make sure they keep a reasonable distance from residential zones and other low-intensity commercial zones in the city.”

The ordinance does not apply to adult entertainment establishments that are in commercial districts or farther than 500 feet from residential areas, even if they are close to other public gathering places. For example, the nude dancing theater next door to the Hollywood Library, which stirred protests two years ago, is not affected by the ordinance.

However, officials acknowledge that forcing these businesses farther from residential areas could cause a drop-off in business.

Greig Smith, an aide to Councilman Hal Bernson, who sponsored the ordinance, agreed with Eberhard.

Action Barred

“We would love to be able to make them illegal totally, but of course, the Constitution prohibits that, so the best we can do is to regulate them,” Smith said.

The ordinance originated from a neighborhood battle between a Studio City homeowners’ association and Le Sex Shoppe, which located one of its chain of 23 adult bookstores near the neighborhood. The homeowners shopped around until they found a council member willing to sponsor their proposal to get the store out of their area.

Bernson said Tuesday that he was “delighted the ordinance is finally on track, going forward.”

His sentiments were echoed by residents who fought to close down individual establishments in other neighborhoods. Beth Hill, who with her neighbors picketed a massage parlor in Hancock Park five years ago, said of the ordinance: “It’s just marvelous. I’m all for it--even if it is . . . years late.”

Police said residents of various areas have long complained that such businesses caused increased noise, traffic and lewd conduct near their homes. Massage parlors and adult book stores are the businesses that bring the most complaints, vice officers said.

On Tuesday, vice officers inspected some of the most complained-about sites in preparation for the close-down effort.