ANAHEIM : New Law Proposed on Adult Businesses

Seeking to avoid another courtroom defeat, the city attorney tonight will propose a new law specifying where sex-oriented businesses can locate, while also barring total nudity.

City Atty. Jack L. White’s proposal would limit adult businesses to commercial or manufacturing zones and sites no closer than 750 feet from an area zoned for residences. The sites also would have to be at least 1,000 feet from any church, park, school or other sex-oriented business.

Moreover, the new proposal would require male and female dancers to wear G-strings. Female dancers would have to wear pasties.

The council could vote on the ordinance as early as next week.

“To come up with this ordinance, we’ve looked at a half dozen other ordinances (in other cities) and the most recent court cases,” White said. “There isn’t another one identical to it. My office has spent several hundred hours working on this.”

He said the most important change in the new ordinance, since a court found the previous statute too vague, is that the council no longer would decide if an adult business should be allowed to open. As long as the business met the specifications outlined in the new ordinance, the city would grant the necessary permits.

The previous attempt reserved for the council the power to decide, based on whether a business would have an “adverse effect” on the surrounding neighborhood.

But federal District Judge Richard A. Gadbois Jr. voided the ordinance in July, saying it was too vague and violated U.S. Supreme Court rulings that nude dancing and other adult businesses are protected by the First Amendment.

The judge’s ruling allowed the dancers at Sandraella’s, a bikini bar, to remove their tops. It was the first adult business to open in the city in at least 10 years. The city is appealing the ruling.

A week later, a state judge, citing Gadbois’ decision, allowed the Sahara Theater, a cabaret with totally nude entertainment near Anaheim Stadium, to open.

Under the proposed ordinance, Sandraella’s and Sahara could continue their current operations until Nov. 1, 1995.