NEWPORT BEACH : Ban on New Adult Businesses Extended

The city this week extended its ban on new businesses that offer adult entertainment for 10 months in the city’s continuing effort to devise regulations to better control the shops.

A 45-day moratorium on establishing adult businesses was near its end, and city staff needs more time to form new rules for those businesses, which will probably include a use-permit process similar to that imposed on massage shops earlier this year, the officials said.

“We’re just taking it one step at a time,” said Assistant City Atty. Robin Flory, who is drafting ordinances to regulate adult entertainment businesses.

The city’s current ordinance details where adult entertainment businesses can operate in the city but does not regulate activity in the store. For example, adult businesses can be opened in most commercial parts of the city but are not allowed near homes, schools, churches or other adult businesses.

The changes are likely to add a requirement that owners of adult entertainment businesses obtain a use permit that could be revoked if business practices violate city regulations.

The city enacted its current ordinance in March after an inquiry from a businessman who wanted to operate a topless barber shop in the city. A review of the ordinance in light of that inquiry revealed that it was not sufficient to regulate activity in such a business.

Earlier this year, the city established new rules for massage shops, including where they can operate and business practices they must follow. It also required those businesses--some of which police had identified as fronts for prostitution--to obtain use permits from the city.

There is still a citywide ban on new tanning salons that include lingerie modeling shows. New regulations governing those shops, which are likely to be similar to those pertaining to massage shops and those being considered for the overall adult entertainment ordinance, are expected to go before the Planning Commission next month.