SIMI VALLEY : Planners to Discuss Adult Businesses

The Simi Valley Planning Commission will consider a proposed adult entertainment ordinance tonight that would regulate all sexually oriented businesses, keeping them well away from homes, churches and playgrounds.

City officials attempted to restrict adult businesses in 1978, but the ordinance was found unconstitutional.

Currently, the city’s only means of controlling adult entertainment is an ordinance that requires businesses selling sexually oriented materials to apply for a special-use permit. But that ordinance makes no mention of other forms of adult entertainment, such as a nude dancing club that was recently proposed for a shopping center on Los Angeles Avenue.

The new ordinance is the result of a two-year effort in the Planning Department to draft adult entertainment regulations that will be as restrictive as possible, but tenable if challenged in court, according to Senior Planner David Petrovich.

The proposed ordinance requires every business having a “substantial” portion of its operation dedicated to adult entertainment to apply for a special-use permit and go through a public hearing before the Planning Commission.

It states that adult entertainment businesses must be located in general commercial or commercial-industrial zones and at least 500 feet from the nearest home, or 300 feet if the home and business are separated by the Simi Valley Freeway.

Such businesses would be required to be at least 1,000 feet from the nearest church, park, playground or school, and 500 feet from another adult entertainment business.

Finally, the proposed ordinance forbids adult entertainment from being conducted within 250 feet of a “youth-oriented business,” such as a bowling alley or a dance club catering to minors, Petrovich said.

The Planning Commission will meet at 7 p.m. at City Hall, 2929 Tapo Canyon Road. If the panel approves the ordinance, the City Council will be asked to adopt it March 1.