City urging two adult businesses to close

BY JILLIAN COHAN
The Wichita Eagle


The city of Wichita is negotiating with two adult entertainment businesses to close in response to a new zoning law that takes effect today.

When the law was passed in 2005, there were nine adult entertainment stores that would be affected by the new regulations, which restrict adult entertainment businesses to industrially or commercially zoned areas.

Four of the businesses have since closed, the city's legal department said. Three may be forced to close, relocate or challenge the city in court.

City officials didn't identify which two businesses they were negotiating with.

The city won't be able to enforce the law against new businesses until its constitutionality has been established in court.

The city probably would not sue the businesses directly but would respond if the businesses challenged the law's validity, said Dale Goter, a city spokesman.

"There's no unique legal perspective here," he said.

"It's a done deal. Now it's just following the prescribed path."

Charlie O'Hara, a local lawyer who represents several of the stores, called the zoning law "a ridiculous bunch of politics."

"The owners do not intend to voluntarily move," he said. "A court is probably going to have to order them out."

Jan Beemer of Operation Southwind, the group that led the charge against the stores, said their closure would make the neighborhoods around them safer.

"We would expect the city to proceed forward legally," she said.

The store owners who have not moved are now violating the law, she added.

"They should be charged like you or I would be charged if we were violating an ordinance," Beemer said.

The law, approved by the City Council in 2005, restricts adult entertainment businesses to industrially or commercially zoned areas, such as those along far East and far West Kellogg, sections of 21st Street and a few other small pockets of the city.

The shops also must be more than 500 feet from churches, schools, licensed day care centers, public parks, residential districts, the Old Town entertainment district and other sex-oriented businesses. But that doesn't mean a church or day care can move into an area and force out the adult video stores.




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