IRVINE : Sex-Oriented Shops Subject of Hearing

City planning commissioners will delve into the subject of smut tonight in the hope that members of the public will never have to.

The Planning Commission will hold a public hearing to decide whether the city should allow sexually oriented businesses to locate only on the city’s east side, where their neighbors will be warehouses and Marine Corps jets rather than homes, schools and churches.

City planners began drafting the ordinance after receiving requests to open adult-oriented stores and bars in neighborhood shopping centers and in the Irvine Business Complex, said Sheri Vander Dussen, Irvine’s manager of development services.

Since a store selling sexually oriented materials may open anywhere the city allows other retail businesses, planners began looking at ways the city could keep future adult businesses away from areas visited by large numbers of residents, Vander Dussen said.

Studies conducted in cities as near as Garden Grove and as far away as Detroit have found that adult-oriented businesses in residential areas or congregated near each other bring more crime and lower property values, she said.

Courts have said cities may use the experience gained in other areas to regulate sex-oriented businesses even before problems erupt locally, she said.

An adult-gift and novelty store that opened recently in a neighborhood shopping center has prompted several complaints from residents, Vander Dussen said.

Irvine currently has two stores selling adult-oriented lingerie and other merchandise, she said. Neither would be affected if the law was approved, Vander Dussen said.

The proposed law would require future businesses to be located north of the Santa Ana Freeway near Barranca Parkway, Alton Parkway or Bake Parkway.

Those areas, near the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station’s jet takeoff pattern, are currently zoned for industrial uses.

The businesses also would be required to file for a separate adult-business permit, install security monitors that would record activities in the parking lot and comply with other restrictions.

Businesses regulated would be stores selling sex toys and devices, adult bookstores, adult theaters and peep shows, escort services, some clubs, short-stay motels, modeling studios and any other business whose prime purpose involves matters relating to sexual activities as defined in detail by the proposed ordinance.

The law also would prohibit any adult-oriented business from locating within 1,000 feet of a home, school or church or within 500 feet of another adult-oriented business.