City Curtails Hours of Adult Bookstore

In an effort to put the chill on steamy activities in and around a Canoga Park adult bookstore--including reports of public sex, cruising and prostitution--the city moved Tuesday to scale back the shop’s operating hours.

The Los Angeles City Council backed a city zoning panel’s decision to curtail the hours of operation of Le Sex Shoppe, on Sherman Way near Owensmouth Avenue, to 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. It has been operating from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m.

The City Council also required the bookstore to deploy two security guards, one of whom would be armed and would monitor the block on which the business is located at night. In addition, the owner and the guards were ordered to file a report within two months to the city about their efforts to eradicate the problems.

David M. Brown, an attorney for Ontario-based Erotic Words and Pictures Inc., which owns Le Sex Shoppe, said his client plans to sue the city within the next two days. Brown charged that an ordinance that allows the city to impose conditions on a business’ operating license if the business is found to be a nuisance violates his client’s freedom of speech.

“The standards for what constitutes a public nuisance are extremely vague,” Brown said. “There’s too much room for discretion and subjectivity, and decisions are made by administrative agencies, which are basically political.”

Brown’s comments suggest that the final chapter has not been written on the long and heated conflict between the bookstore--which sells sexually explicit videos and magazines and provides private viewing booths--and neighbors who say the business is a magnet for public sex acts and other problems.