City, porn shops settle
The city of Spokane may be on the verge of winning its five-year battle to force neighborhood sex shops to curb their sales of pornography and other adult material.
The owner of three of the shops has agreed to an order that would limit sales of adult material to no more than 20 percent of each store’s floor area and to no more than 25 percent of their inventories. Any adult material would be partitioned from the rest of the business and access would be limited to adults only.
The idea is to get the sex shops in neighborhoods to convert to boutiques that emphasize non-explicit items such as clothing, gifts, lingerie and furnishings.
Under a consent decree now before the City Council, shops operated by World Wide Video of Washington Inc. would abide by the city’s 2001 law regulating adult sex shops. They are at 1811 E. Sprague, 3813 N. Division and 4811 N. Market.
The shops would no longer advertise their “triple-X” merchandise but could use “mature products sold here” and describe their merchandise as being for “mature audiences,” according to the decree.
“I would like to see a little more done,” said Spokane resident Terri Bosch, who testified before the City Council in favor of porn controls in 2003 and called the consent decree a “step in the right direction.”
Until now, World Wide Video had sought to block city enforcement of anti-porn controls but dropped its fight after losing a series of court battles, including appeals at the federal and state levels in 2004 and 2005 respectively.
A federal appeals court said the city has a right to “keep the pig out of the parlor.”
Council President Joe Shogan called the consent decree a “good agreement” and said that he expects council members to approve a resolution directing the city attorney to enter the order in federal court.
“I think the council will follow the recommendations of legal,” he said. A vote is scheduled for Monday’s council meeting at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall.
Deputy Mayor Jack Lynch said, “They are going to comply with what we wanted them to do.”
The 2001 city zoning law, which was amended and strengthened in 2003, prohibits adult sex shops in residential and office zones and within 750 feet of any homes, schools, day care centers, libraries, churches and playgrounds, as well as any other adult entertainment shops.
The law defines “adult retail use establishments” as those that have substantial stock in adult-entertainment material. It also sets a general limit of 30 percent adult material as a threshold for distinguishing such an establishment.
Among the amendments in 2003, the law makes it a misdemeanor to operate a sex shop in violation of the zoning code.
Gilbert Levy, attorney for World Wide Video, said the consent decree has something in it for his client. “The advantage is it ends the litigation with the city and allows my client to stay in business.” Levy also said that the decree sets merchandise limits that are lower than the 30 percent defined by the city law.
The consent decree would close out a lawsuit brought by the city against World Wide Video in 2005 to force the company to comply with the adult sex shop law. That suit was initially filed in Spokane County Superior Court and then moved to federal court because of constitutional counterclaims by World Wide Video.
World Wide Video had previously challenged the constitutionality of the law and lost.
A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2004 that the law served “Spokane’s substantial interest in reducing the undesirable secondary effects of adult stores.”
Spokane officials said they would prefer that adult establishments relocate to allowable zones in the city, and that at least one adult sex shop has found a permissible location in the downtown area. The law was written to avoid infringing on civil rights of free speech and was modeled after laws that had survived court challenges elsewhere, they said.
Among the problems associated with the shops, city officials said children and unsuspecting adults had reported finding discarded pornography left outside of the shops. Some customers would discard as litter the graphic wrappers from videotapes, they said.
As part of the consent decree, World Wide Video has agreed to keep the areas around their shops free of litter and to walk through those areas to discourage illegal activity. In addition, they agreed to keep trash containers locked outdoors and to give customers the option of purchasing materials without wrappers.
The shops also agreed to maintain sales records so that city officials could check for compliance. However, the consent decree also said, “Nothing stated herein shall be construed as a limitation on the percentage of profits of the business derived from the sale of ‘adult oriented merchandise.’ “
Porn opponent Bosch said, “It’s kind of like, ‘Let’s try to conceal it a little more,’ but it’s still there.”