Council Asks Staff to Peep into Adult Businesses

By Gene Williams
Staff Writer

May 19 -- Sparked by concerns over a new store selling sex toys and flimsy lingerie on Lincoln Boulevard, City Hall will consider whether tougher restrictions are needed for Santa Monica's adult businesses.

The move came during Tuesday night's City Council meeting after three Sunset Park residents said they want to keep sex shops away from their neighborhood and asked for new ordinances to keep massage parlors and motels from reopening after a prostitution bust.

In a motion made by council member Richard Bloom -- who placed the item on the evening's agenda -- the City Attorney will study options which will balance citizen concerns with the rights of businesses.

While Bloom acknowledged that the current ordinance “may be out of date and in need of revision," he added that there are "first amendment constraints that need to be considered when crafting an ordinance."

Bloom also asked that Planning Department staff study rezoning options to create "an environment on Lincoln Boulevard that the City and, I think, our residents expect and deserve" as they update the General Plan -- a document which will dictate development for decades to come.

But Mayor Pam O'Connor cautioned against expecting too much from the study.

"I'm not quite sure what will come out of it since these businesses can't be banned from the city completely," O'Connor said. The mayor also worried about rezoning in a way that would segregate the adult businesses in a single area, creating a red-light district.

The residents -- an ad hoc committee which claims the support of several neighborhood groups and local PTAs -- complained that the current codes were full of loop-holes, leaving the City unable to control the establishments which, they say, are responsible for a host of problems.

"The current language is too vague, leaving them virtually unregulated," Landmark Commissioner Nina Fresco told the council, adding that any business of a "sexual nature" should be classified as an "adult business.”

"Santa Monica has not been able to shut down massage parlors and motels where prostitution has taken place," Fresco said. "Owners sell the businesses overnight and reopen them in the morning" to get around the law, she said.

Eric Gabster, who has helped lead the cause, told the council that the March opening of Secret Desires on Lincoln Boulevard "capped neighbors' frustration over what appears to be a slide toward a red light district of massage parlors, seedy motels, street walkers, and now, a sex shop that advertises itself as a ten-thousand-square-foot mega-superstore." (see related story)

"Neighbors were shocked, angry and confused at how the City code would allow this kind of store to open so easily," Gabster said, pointing out its close proximity to residences, churches, schools and parks.

Indeed, Lincoln Boulevard seems to get more than its share of crime. In March -- when asked if police presence would be stepped up after Secret Desires opened -- Santa Monica police officer Robert Almada told concerned citizens that the street already gets plenty of attention from the City's vice and narcotics unit.

Jeff O'Ren, also with the citizens' group, said "the best example I can give of how these businesses are very negative to our residential neighborhood" comes from personal experience.

O'Ren said that during an evening walk near his house, he "saw this very scary looking guy standing by the corner." Then, a few minutes later, he heard screams and "saw this guy running down the street."

O'Ren explained that what he saw were robbers fleeing past his house after holding up the nearby Skin Paradise massage parlor on Lincoln Boulevard.

Skin Paradise was the seventh massage parlor to be robbed in the last several months. (see related story)