Santa Clarita Residents Oppose Adult Business : Sex: New store will sell erotic videos and magazines next to a children’s dance studio. Owner says his shop poses no threat.

This city, long opposed to sex-oriented businesses, is on the alert again, this time with residents objecting to a store that will sell adult videos and magazines next to a children’s dance studio.

Mature World, a novelty store expected to devote half of its space to erotic material, is scheduled to open Monday in a small shopping center on San Fernando Road. The dance studio’s owner has already announced plans to move to a new location within a month, citing concerns that the mini-mall will now draw more such businesses and become a new Hollywood, replete with unsavory customers.

“It’s going to draw all kinds of men that are going to be hanging around,” said studio owner Marjorie Allison. “I object to that kind of thing very highly. I’m a morally good person and I don’t think it should be there at all.”

Children as young as 3 are taught at Allison’s Santa Clarita Valley Dance Centre, which has been operating in its current location since 1980. Allison said many of the classes take place in the evening and she is concerned that customers drawn by adult businesses may endanger her students and employees.

The store’s owners deny that it will pose either a moral or physical threat.

Saib Alrabadi, co-owner of Mature World, said the front part of the store will sell gifts for all ages such as T-shirts and trading cards, with the adult section behind a partition in the back. He doesn’t expect the store to attract dangerous customers.

“The same parents who bring their children to the studio I’m sure watch adult movies, too,” he said. “The people who come here are just going to be regular people.”

But Allison said parents of about half of her students, whose number she would not disclose, have threatened to leave her studio if it remains in its current location. Among them was Carol Taylor, a Saugus resident who said she wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving her 3-year-old daughter there.

“I would feel the need to stay in the car the whole time, with the doors locked,” Taylor said.

Such debates are not new in this conservative bedroom community.

In 1992, the Playboy Channel was removed from local cable television service due to lack of subscribers, and a drive-through condom shop was criticized by a city councilwoman who threatened to discourage customers by videotaping them.

An attempt last year to open the area’s only striptease club was short-lived, as both the building’s owner and residents complained to county authorities about the club’s lack of permits.

Those opposing Santa Clarita’s latest sex-business venture complain mostly about its location. In addition to the children’s studio next door, it is at a three-way intersection that provides the only access to several churches in nearby Placerita Canyon.

Pastor David White of the Christian Family Church predicted that the new shop would be “somewhat provocative” because churchgoers will look directly at it as they leave the canyon.

“I’m going to be stimulated by the word of God and within minutes I’m going to have to confront this building,” White said.

A few pastors have urged congregants to voice their objections to the city and scheduled prayer meetings to address the matter. But Bob Snyder, an associate pastor at Grace Baptist Church, said it is also important to respect the store owners’ rights, even if people object to what is being sold there.

“If they are people who are within the law, we certainly are going to recognize their right to exist without picketing them, just like we wouldn’t want them picketing us during worship services,” he said.

Other residents and business owners also said Mature World deserves a chance.

“I don’t have any major objection to it,” said Joseph Davis, owner of the Just for You Laundermat, two doors away from Mature World. He said he will become concerned only if customers are disruptive.

Mayor Jo Anne Darcy said she is doing everything she can to tighten the city’s already tough restrictions on sex-oriented businesses, but she believes much of the debate about Mature World being a “porno store” has gotten out of hand.

“The rumor world is crazy here,” she said, noting that the adult magazines will be in the back of the store. “They’re not in front, where children are going to be able to see it.”

The city prohibits businesses that sell sexual paraphernalia unless the owner receives a conditional-use permit, said Senior Planner Donald Williams. But he added that businesses that sell adult publications and videos are allowed to open in a few commercial and industrial areas, including the Mature World location, because they have greater First Amendment protection.

“Our regulations are about as strict as legally possible,” he said. “There is no way, due to constitutional freedoms, that we can eliminate adult literature businesses.”

Alrabadi said several similar businesses already exist locally.

“Go to any video store in Santa Clarita and you’ll see that they have adult movies, too,” he said. “I’m not bringing something new to the area.”

He also said he considers the moral objections to his store unfair, since people will only be exposed to explicit material by choice.

“I’m a Christian and I’m religious, too,” he said. “I believe in Jesus Christ, but business is business.”