Cities Struggle to Halt Adult Businesses : Law: Six topless clubs have opened recently in O.C. Finding legal means to restrict them is not easy.

On stage, Ashley was brazen and bold, slowly peeling off her lingerie while an audience of men in business suits and T-shirts ogled her every move.

Out of the spotlight, the slender brunette seemed much younger and demure as she absently tugged at a short, silk wrap and tucked her legs underneath her body as she sat down.

“I’m not embarrassed about what I’m doing. . . . It makes me feel special,” she said. Yet Ashley acknowledged she uses a stage name for her strip act at the Sahara Theatre in Anaheim because “if my family knew what I was doing, they’d kill me.”

Like Ashley’s family, Orange County’s cities can’t tolerate adult entertainment and nearly wiped out topless clubs two years ago by outlawing them.

But now, business is booming again. Six nude showplaces have opened recently throughout the county, and city officials are struggling to find the legal means to halt the spread.

As half a dozen local cities work on ordinances to regulate adult businesses such as topless clubs, video arcades and massage parlors, they must deal with a new legal reality: “The courts have sent us a clear message that cities cannot ban adult businesses,” Mission Viejo Assistant City Atty. John Cavanaugh said. “The best we can do is reduce their impact on our community.”

Outright bans on nude entertainment have been slapped down by the courts as a violation of free speech rights.

Yet when cities try to follow court guidelines allowing sexually explicit businesses, within certain restrictions, city council chambers fill up with indignant citizens claiming city officials are letting filth invade their communities.

“I know we’re walking a fine line here,” said Anaheim City Councilman Irv Pickler, whose city lost two court battles this summer to close topless clubs. “I want to put on the boxing gloves sometimes so bad and go at it with these places. But the judges say there are limits to what we can do and we have to live with that.”

However, that doesn’t stop local governments from testing the limits of the law, with mixed results. And it certainly doesn’t quell citizen protests that have broken out in several Orange County communities.

* After 120 arrests for lewd conduct in an 18-month period at a Santa Ana adult bookstore, the city tried to close the business, citing public nuisance standards. In July, an Orange County Superior Court judge ruled against Santa Ana, which plans to appeal the decision.

* After existing for years as a comedy club, the Laff Stop in unincorporated Santa Ana Heights turned to topless dancing this year and was promptly raided and hauled into court by the county. On Wednesday, a permanent injunction was issued against the club because it violated a county ordinance prohibiting adult entertainment within 500 feet of residential areas.

* In July, Anaheim’s ordinance was ruled invalid by an Orange County Superior Court judge, allowing the Sahara Theatre to open. One week earlier, a U.S. District Court in Los Angeles turned down the city’s attempt to close another topless club in the city. The city’s reaction: Pass an ordinance that would force the cabarets to move within 18 months and concentrate on appealing the Sahara Theatre decision.

“Once it starts, there can be a groundswell” of topless clubs moving to the city, said Anaheim police Sgt. Mike Patterson, who supervises vice operations. “We don’t want Anaheim to be known as a strippers’ haven.”

* Mission Viejo doesn’t have any adult businesses, but that hasn’t prevented controversy over erotic entertainment. More than 100 people have attended each of the last two city Planning Commission meetings when an ordinance to regulate adult businesses was on the agenda. A final version of the city law is expected to be approved soon.

Los Alamitos, Dana Point, San Clemente and Brea are also working on adult ordinances. Other cities are closely watching their progress.

Complicating enforcement problems is a maze of conflicting decisions on adult businesses handed down by local, state and federal courts over the years, said Katherine Stone, a Ventura attorney who specializes in First Amendment issues.

“It’s a problem that cities are facing all over the country,” said Stone, who was a featured speaker last month at a national conference of city officials.

Accepting that a ban on adult entertainment won’t win in court, the tool most cities are now turning to is called dispersal zoning.

Established most recently by a 1986 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, the concept allows cities to restrict adult commerce to certain areas and regulate their numbers and distance from churches, schools and residences.

“At least 90% of the time they leave you no place to go,” complained Glen Smith, general manager of Mr. J’s in Santa Ana, a topless nightclub that opened last month.

“And when you do find a place,” he said, “all of a sudden the doors push open and police are coming in to bust you. Bottom line is (cities) don’t want you here, no matter that you’ve come in legally and run a clean operation.”

Police in Santa Ana, Anaheim and Stanton, where topless and nude dancing establishments are located, report no increase in crimes traditionally associated with these types of businesses, such as prostitution and drug sales.

“We haven’t had any enforcement problems (at strip clubs) that are any worse than problems we handle at liquor stores and restaurants that serve alcohol,” Patterson said.

In fact, Steve Spry, whose karate school is next door to TJ’s Showgirl Theater in Stanton, says doormen employed by the nude cabaret have even cleaned up prostitution and petty crimes that previously existed in the small shopping plaza they share.

But he still doesn’t want them as neighbors.

“I think this is a very inappropriate location. There are little kids walking by all the time who live in an apartment complex behind us,” Spry said. “Sometimes I think our laws don’t work for us, they work against us.”

Spry’s attitude isn’t rare.

Anger was the first reaction of many Mission Viejo residents who were told the city could not legally ban adult businesses. But like their city officials, the citizens seem to have gradually, if reluctantly, accepted there are limitations on what can be done.

“I see no socially redeeming value to (adult entertainment) at all,” said Pastor George McElroy of the Mission Viejo Christian Church. “It’s morally important to make our ordinance as restrictive as possible. But banning them doesn’t appear to be a tenable position for the city, I do understand that.”

McElroy’s sense of morality doesn’t interest Thomas Coffman, a customer at TJ’s Showgirl Theater, as he folds a a dollar bill to hand to a statuesque blonde dancing above him.

“Look at this place, there are bouncers all around and I don’t see any signs in front that say ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ or anything,” Coffman said. “If I want to come in and check out a little booty, it harms nobody and stimulates the economy.

“I’d kind of like the Bible boppers to get their noses out of my business,” he added.

For cities, getting rid of adult entertainment is both legally troublesome and expensive.

Starting in the early 1970s, Santa Ana spent nearly 10 years and $350,000 to shut down the Mitchell Brothers Theater. The city lost the legal battle, but the notorious adult film house eventually lost its lease and was forced to close.

Stanton’s legal bills come to about $50,000 since 1991 to shut down two Beach Boulevard nude cabarets, TJ’s Showgirl Theater and the Fun House. The city succeeded in closing the Fun House, but TJ’s had opened shortly before the city passed its adult business ordinance.

Although many city attorneys say that ordinances are a flawed weapon in their fight against adult businesses, they admit the laws are the best alternative available.

“I think it’s the best option we have,” Stanton City Atty. Thomas W. Allen said. “But it will always be a balancing act because the constitutional standards aren’t precise.”

Adult Entertainment

Orange County has an increasing number of live adult-entertainment venues, many of which had to overcome legal problems to stay in business.

1. Captain Cream’s, Lake Forest: Offered lingerie show for several years; went topless last summer. City attorney investigating whether club’s new policy violates any municipal ordinance.

2. Laff Stop, Santa Ana Heights: Comedy club turned to topless entertainment until a judge issued injunction against exotic dancing on Wednesday.

3. Paddy Murphy’s, Santa Ana: Oldest topless cabaret in the county; attorneys convinced judge it is a dance theater protected by constitutional free speech rulings. Owners recently closed a section and added nude table dancing.

4. Sahara Theatre, Anaheim: Challenged city’s adult ordinance and opened for nude dancing when law was overturned in July.

5. Sandraella’s, Anaheim: Former neighborhood bar bought almost two years by a former topless dancer who brought in bikini dancers, then went to topless entertainment when cited for indecent behavior by the city last February. Won the right to stay topless in a U.S. District Court ruling in July.

6. Mr. J’s, Santa Ana: Newest topless club in Orange County opened last month; may have skirted legal problems by locating in industrial area. Has not yet faced legal challenge.

7. TJ’s Showgirl Theater, Stanton: Opened before the city broadened its adult-entertainment ordinance; survived a court challenge by Stanton in 1991. Offers nude cabaret.

Sources: Times reports, individual establishments

Researched by FRANK MESSINA / For The Times