FOUNTAIN VALLEY : City OKs 45-Day Ban on Adult Businesses

The city has temporarily stopped businesses that offer adult entertainment from opening here.

The City Council on Tuesday unanimously passed a 45-day urgency ordinance to prohibit such businesses, including nude dance clubs.

“This is a very delicate issue,” Mayor John Collins said. “We have to balance constitutional rights with the general welfare of the community.”

Andrew Perea, planning services manager, said the moratorium is needed because the city’s code does not adequately address zoning standards for adult businesses.

For example, he said, current regulations do not deal with the proximity of adult businesses to churches, schools or homes.

“The lack of appropriate development standards for adult-type entertainment and uses poses a threat to the public health, safety or welfare in that the use may create negative secondary effects for the surrounding area and the city as a whole,” Perea said.

The city recently got an inquiry about opening a nude dance cabaret, prompting officials to approve the ban so that they could have time to study the potential effects of adult entertainment. Currently, there are no nude or topless clubs in the city.

“We do need to do something. But cities can’t prohibit (adult businesses), only specify where they will go,” City Atty. Alan R. Burns said.

Under the moratorium, which can be extended by the council to two years, the city will study the issue to determine what locations would be appropriate for adult entertainment, Burns said.

Other cities are also grappling with adult entertainment ordinances.