GARDEN GROVE : City Votes to Survey Adult Businesses

The city, seeking to bolster its legal standing in efforts to regulate adult businesses such as bookstores and “peep shows,” will hire a consultant to study the impact of such businesses.

This week, the council approved an agreement with UC Irvine researchers Richard McCleary and James Meeker to assess the effect that the businesses have on property values, crime and nuisances such as noise. The council voted 4 to 1 in favor of the proposal, with Councilman J. Tilman Williams dissenting.

Additionally, the consultants are to study adult businesses not located in the city.

The completed reports are expected by Feb. 15, and the consultants will be paid $20,350.

Williams objected to the cost, arguing that better enforcement of zoning laws would be cheaper and more effective. “If we already know the solution, why are we going to spend $20,000 to $25,000 of taxpayers’ money on this?” he asked.

City Manager George L. Tindall said that zoning enforcement wasn’t a complete solution, and that the survey was needed to support the city’s contention that adult businesses should be treated differently from other commercial concerns.

“In order for us to have an ordinance that provides a separation, we have to justify that separation,” Tindall said. “They’ll take the data to study the impact of adult uses on adjacent areas that hopefully meet the standards of the Supreme Court.”

Garden Grove’s “spacing” ordinance, which attempts to keep such businesses a certain distance from each other and away from residential areas, has been struck down by courts, Tindall said.

The other choice is to designate a certain area of the city for adult businesses. The city has seven adult bookstores and peep shows on Garden Grove Boulevard, most of them between Magnolia Street and Beach Boulevard.