Judge Orders Garden Grove to Reconsider Its Rejection of Plan for ‘Nude Juice Bar’

An adult bookstore owner won a major battle in an ongoing war with the city of Garden Grove on Thursday when a Superior Court judge ordered that the city reconsider the owner’s petition to turn his bookstore into a juice bar featuring nude dancers.

Judge C. Robert Jameson acknowledged that “there’s no popularity for this type of business” in the community but said that the area is zoned “for adult activity” businesses.

Furthermore, the judge ruled, the city did not present enough evidence to buttress the City Council’s decision in January rejecting Waldon R. Welty’s plans to turn his bookstore and peep-show arcade on Garden Grove Boulevard into a so-called nude juice bar. At the bar, which Welty calls a “cabaret,” patrons would sip nonalcoholic beverages while watching nude or topless women dance.

The city had argued in its brief to the court that a parking lot at the location does not meet the city’s requirements and would cause traffic problems and jeopardize the health, safety and welfare of residents in the area. The bookstore, city lawyers said, had already precipitated some of those problems.

Jameson, however, said that Welty’s business, A-Z Books, should not shoulder all of the blame for the area’s blighted condition. “That end of Garden Grove is certainly not the garden spot” of the city, he said.

On the upside for the city, Jameson did rule that the peep-show arcade side of the business would have to shorten its business hours to 10 p.m. during the week and midnight on weekends. But he granted a motion by Welty’s lawyer, Roger J. Diamond, to not enforce that ruling for 90 days to allow time for an appeal.

City Atty. Stuart B. Scudder did not object to Jameson’s decision to send the case back to the city for reconsideration. He said outside the courtroom that it could have been worse: The judge could have overturned the City Council’s ruling.

“That’s a big success for the city,” Scudder said. Jameson’s ruling “is not a setback at all. It just means additional hearings, where all the neighbors will be notified and they can voice their objections to such a nuisance.”

Diamond said that Welty won an important point and that “justice was done today.”

“The cabaret will attract an entirely different clientele already in the area now,” he said. “These will be taxpayers that will bring the city additional money.”