Campaign to Block Adult Business Zone in Simi Stymied

A group of residents campaigning to keep adult-oriented businesses out of the city has run into a series of obstacles, including missing a deadline to place an initiative on the November ballot.

Nonetheless, a leader for the group vowed Tuesday to continue to fight an ordinance passed by the City Council earlier this summer to zone a dusty, 85-acre crescent of land for businesses, including cabarets and adult bookstores.

“I can’t be real specific about what we’re going to do, but I’m confident that the current ordinance will not go into effect,” said conservative activist Steve Frank, who has helped spearhead the campaign against the adult-oriented business district. “Things are in the works.”

Frank was one of more than 200 residents who jammed council chambers in June to protest the city’s move to create the adult entertainment zone, located along Los Angeles Avenue near Moorpark.

When the council unanimously approved the zone, Frank and other residents promised to draft an initiative to ban such businesses and field like-minded City Council candidates. The group, which wanted to replace the entire council, even talked about recalling Barbra Williamson and Bill Davis because they are not up for reelection in November.

But the group has run into problems executing its plans. The recall effort fizzled, the group missed a deadline to get its initiative on the November ballot and a political candidate it supports has said he does not necessarily agree the council erred in approving the entertainment zone.

Frank said that longtime Simi Valley resident and former council and county supervisor candidate Larry Fick had agreed to seek the mayoral seat which Greg Stratton will vacate in November.

“I can’t speak for [Fick], but I think that will be a pivotal issue in the campaign,” Frank said. “People here don’t want a council that invites higher crime, endangers our children and increases our taxes, which is exactly what they did when they voted this thing in.”

However, Fick said he is not convinced that the council’s decision on the adult business zone was to the detriment of the community and said his campaign platform and reasons for running go far beyond the single issue. He said his campaign will focus on the state of the city’s library and upping the ante in the city’s fight against gangs.

“I think there are some issues that from a moral standpoint we need to take a stand on,” the 60-year-old candidate said. “But I want to take a closer look at this ordinance and what it says before I make a judgment on that issue.”

The City Council reluctantly approved the ordinance because of legal concerns. According to City Atty. David Hirsch, the city risked trampling 1st Amendment guarantees if it adopted an ordinance banning adult-oriented businesses.

And if the city had taken no action, as some residents have suggested it should have done, proprietors of such businesses would have been allowed to locate anywhere within the city and provide any kind of entertainment they wanted.

The current ordinance confines adult businesses to one location and restricts the kinds of live entertainment and other aspects of the industry. For example, dancers will be required to wear at least a bikini when performing in Simi Valley.

“It’s tough,” Williamson recently said. “It puts them out by the dump, which I personally feel is appropriate.”

But to opponents like Frank, regardless of where you put them or what kind of entertainment they provide, adult businesses are like an incurable virus.

“The City Council knows exactly what happens when these kinds of places open up and yet they went ahead and passed it,” he said. “They should have done the right thing. They should have had the courage to say no.”