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City might make adult shops move Ordinance would restrict sex-oriented businesses A proposed ordinance to regulate sex-oriented businesses could give Castle Superstore and the Le Dolls night club one year to set up shop elsewhere in Medford -- and greatly restrict the number of sites available to such businesses. The ordinance, drafted by local attorney Frank Sybrant and delivered to City Hall earlier this week, leans heavily on the demonstration of harmful "secondary effects" attributed to sex-oriented businesses. The ordinance would regulate a wide-range of sex-oriented businesses, from adult bookstores to peepshows, escort and exotic dancer services and short-occupancy motels. Such businesses could not be sited within 500 feet of a residential area or within 1,000 feet of another sex-oriented business. Existing nonconforming businesses would have one year to relocate. That provision would take in, among others, both Castle and Le Dolls. The shopping center Castle occupies at 1113 Progress Way backs on an apartment complex. Le Dolls, at 35 Riverside Avenue, is less than 500 feet from a multi-family residential zone across Bear Creek to the east. The ordinance specifically states that "the measurement shall be made in a straight line, without regard to the intervening structures or objects." It's not immediately clear where these businesses could move. For instance, were Le Dolls to move west closer to downtown Medford's core, it would soon fall within a 500-foot radius of Vogel Park at Main and Central streets -- or a similar 500-foot bubble surrounding Alba Park. The ordinance creates such buffers not only around parks, but also around any recreational area, bicycle path, some city-managed properties, and child- or family-oriented entertainment businesses. The ordinance would create 1,000-foot buffers around any place of worship and schools of any sort, ranging from day-care centers to universities. Sybrant could not be reached for comment Friday on a copy of his proposed ordinance obtained from the City of Medford. Attorney Tonia Moro, who crafted a sex-oriented business statute for Gold Hill in April 1995, said Friday that she believed a narrowly crafted ordinance could stand up to legal challenges. "I based my advice on a Supreme Court decision which suggested that if it was done on a case-by-case basis, through a findings process, it would pass constitutional muster," Moro said. She added that the findings would have to demonstrate that the business would have a significant harmful impact on its surroundings. These so-called secondary effects are important because the First Amendment prohibits regulating a business by the content of its speech, and Oregon Constitution's free speech protections are greater even than the First Amendment provides, Moro said. Those effects could prove difficult to demonstrate. Medford police sources say there appear to be no more -- and in some cases, fewer -- calls to existing adult-oriented businesses than to many other retail outlets. Brian Edwards, president of Les Dolls, said he had not seen the proposed ordinance and could not comment until he'd had a chance to review it. "We have a full-time attorney for this corporation," Edwards said. "I'm not going to comment until I've had a chance to review it with legal counsel and know what's in it." The ordinance places the burden of proof that harmful secondary effects can "or will" occur upon the city. It also contains specific findings of numerous cities where such effects are said to have been documented, ranging from Amarillo to Seattle. Law enforcement sources suggest no such conclusion can be readily drawn about Le Dolls, Castle, or the two adult bookstores on Highway 99 north and south of Medford: Jackson County Sheriff's Department records show six reports since 1987 at the Adult Bargain Spot, 3340 N. Highway 99. These were all thefts, mostly involving minor pilfering. At Adult Land, 2755 South Pacific Highway, in the past 10 years there have been several automatic alarms, a robbery at gunpoint in August 1998, an attempted burglary in July 1996, and a domestic dispute that actually occurred off the premises, but which the husband ran into the store to report. No statistics were immediately available from the Medford Police Department, but on-duty Sgt. Bob Hansen said Castle probably had fewer instances of police calls than the average retail store, and that his own impression was that Le Dolls had no more incidents than other similarly busy taverns. City Manager Michael Dyal said Wednesday that he hoped to present the material for the Medford City Council's review in a study session on Dec. 8. The matter could come to a vote on by Dec. 17. Today's Business Index Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA