FOUNTAIN VALLEY : Adult-Business Foes Protest to Planners

About 200 residents and business owners, some carrying flyers reading “No On Porno,” packed a Planning Commission meeting Wednesday to protest a proposed ordinance regulating adult entertainment establishments.

The hearing, the third on the issue, drew a standing-room-only crowd and was described by city officials as the highest attended meeting in recent years.

Outraged residents jeered at times as commissioners considered the ordinance, which would allow sexually oriented businesses in some parts of the city.

City officials said adult entertainment businesses, such as nude and topless dance clubs, are protected under the First Amendment, although cities can restrict where such businesses can be located to ease problems.

But the overwhelming message from the 26 people who spoke during the three-hour hearing was to ban any adult business from Fountain Valley.

“No law is immutable,” said resident Robert H. Rusoff, who led a petition drive that gathered signatures from more than 650 people opposed to adult businesses. “The people of Fountain Valley must unite. . . . Let us join together in a crusade for decency and family values.”

Attorney Janet M. LaRue, however, told the crowd: “Your city officials are working hard so you’re not a vulnerable community.

“The goal is to allow a sufficient number of sites but place them in an area where they will cause the least amount of harm,” said LaRue, of the National Law Center for Children and Families in Santa Ana.

A proposal to zone a portion of the Southpark industrial and commercial area, east of Euclid Street and west of the Santa Ana River, for adult businesses received some favorable response from the public.

Planning Services Manager Andrew Perea said this area would provide for a 500-foot buffer from homes and a nearby church along Euclid Street and Slater Avenue.

Planners asked city employees to return Nov. 8. with a Southpark proposal and to draft the most restrictive ordinance possible. The City Council will consider the proposal Nov. 21.