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

After a two-year grace period, the city of Los Angeles on Tuesday began enforcing an ordinance that is expected to oust about 90 sex-oriented businesses located near residential neighborhoods.

About 50 of these establishments could be closed in two weeks’ time, a Department of Building and Safety official predicted. The owners of about 30 others have applied for a three-year extension, while still others have already closed in anticipation of the ordinance’s enforcement, said Jim Carney, chief inspector of the department’s Community Safety Division.

Affected by the ordinance are adult bookstores, massage parlors, bathhouses, nude dancing parlors and sex-oriented movie theaters located within 500 feet of homes. 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.

The ordinance, which represented a big victory for angry residents when the City Council unanimously passed it in March, 1986, gives city officials the authority to oust sex-oriented businesses from residential areas.

Groups of residents in many neighborhoods have long contended that it is dangerous for children to be exposed to the customers such businesses attract. Residents also have charged that the businesses bring increased crime, as well as noise and traffic, to a neighborhood. They have picketed, petitioned, called police and complained to City Hall.

Many, such as Beth Hill, who with her neighbors picketed a massage parlor in Hancock Park five years ago, welcomed the ordinance as the long-sought solution to their problems.

“It’s just marvelous,” Hill said. “I’m all for it--even if it is . . . years late.”

But 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 ordinance, they said, is not designed to drive the businesses from the city but to move 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 is “delighted the ordinance is finally on track, going forward.”

As Bernson spoke, violation notices were being distributed among Building and Safety inspectors, who will immediately begin citing owners of such businesses. Owners who fail to comply will face criminal prosecution on misdemeanor charges by the city attorney’s office as quickly as 15 days after receiving the notice.

While the law officially took effect Sunday, requests for extensions can still 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.