Tough Rules for Adult Businesses Win Preliminary OK in Lancaster

Spurred by several hundred religious activists, the Lancaster City Council has given preliminary approval to an ordinance that would impose perhaps the toughest restrictions in the state on adult-oriented businesses.

Although mostly preventive in nature, the city ordinance, which passed on a 4-0 council vote Monday night, seeks to break new legal ground in California by including a ban on the sale of sexual devices such as vibrators and by outlawing nude shows even where no alcohol is sold.

It would also limit adult bookstores, motels, theaters, massage parlors, cabarets and escort services to two small industrial areas of the city. They also would have to be at least 1,500 feet away from each other or any homes, public buildings, churches or youth organizations.

City officials and residents who support the measure, which faces a final vote in two weeks, argue that it will help keep Lancaster free of the crime and other problems often associated with such businesses. But foes contend that the law amounts to censorship and would be unconstitutional.

At present, Lancaster has only one nominally adult business, the Fun Zone Gifts store that sells vibrators and other sexual devices and rents adult movies but sells non-adult items as well.

Its owner, Greg Poulin, vowed Tuesday to fight the law to the state Supreme Court if necessary.

If enacted, the law would prohibit Poulin from selling the sex devices, although he vowed to disregard the ban. However, whether Poulin’s business would be forced to move to the industrial area depends on whether the city determines that his store is primarily engaged in selling sexually oriented material.

Jan LaRue, an attorney for the Virginia-based National Law Center for Children and Families, who helped Lancaster officials draft the measure, said she knew of no other California city with more restrictive regulations and none that banned the sale of sexual devices.

Attorney David M. Brown of Beverly Hills agreed, saying he knew of no tougher law in the state. But Brown, representing Doc Johnson Enterprises, a North Hollywood-based distributor of marital aids, argued that Lancaster’s sales ban would violate the California Constitution’s privacy provisions.

By contrast, the city of Los Angeles’ adult businesses law only requires such outlets to be at least 500 feet from homes and schools and 1,000 feet from each other. But its provisions requiring nonconforming stores to relocate are on hold pending the outcome of a federal court challenge.

Lancaster Councilman Arnie Rodio said he was not sure how the city would deal with Fun Zone Gifts. But Rodio said the main purpose of the law is to give the city the power to regulate adult businesses that might open.

The neighboring city of Palmdale suffered a setback last year when it failed, after a costly court battle, to close its only adult book and video store, in part because the city law then in place entitled the store to operate. Palmdale later tightened its law for future outlets.

Lancaster council members, including a Baptist minister and a religious school director, were cheered Monday night by a crowd of several hundred church members whose leaders have strongly lobbied for the tougher adult business laws.

In a related move, the council also gave preliminary approval, by a 4-0 vote, to a law imposing restrictions on new bars, mini-marts, liquor stores and nightclubs in the city. Under the law’s guidelines, new outlets should be 500 feet from any similar establishment and 600 to 1,000 feet from parks, schools and churches.

The alcohol ordinance, which also faces a final vote in two weeks, is similar to those increasingly being adopted by cities throughout California. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is expected to consider a similar measure in the coming weeks for unincorporated areas.

Despite pleas from anti-alcohol activists, Lancaster officials did not include in the ordinance new supermarkets, restaurants and drug stores that sell alcohol. The county measure would include those. But neither measure would cover existing businesses.