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House OKs sex-shop bill By Peter Wong SALEM -- Oregon voters are one step closer to deciding whether to let cities and counties restrict the locations of sex-related businesses. By a 48-11 vote Friday, the House moved the proposed ballot measure to the Senate. The measure was prompted by recent controversies in Medford and Portland over the locations of Castle Superstores, an Arizona chain that sells sex-oriented items. The ballot measure would amend the Oregon Constitution's free-expression guarantee, which the Oregon Supreme Court says protects such businesses. If the Senate agrees, it would go to voters in the next statewide election, either Nov. 2 or in May 2000. Although 14 representatives spoke, the hourlong debate about House Joint Resolution 52 boiled down to a battle between two Rogue Valley members, both lawyers. "This is a safe and healthy approach to zoning in our communities," said Rep. Rob Patridge, R-Medford, its chief sponsor and floor manager. "This approach looks forward to prevent red-light districts and other things from happening within the bounds of your cities and counties. It is limited in scope." Patridge was president of the Medford City Council last September, when Castle Superstores moved into a vacant grocery store on Progress Drive. Advised by lawyers that it could not pass muster in Oregon courts, the council dropped a couple of attempts to regulate such businesses by ordinance. Oregon voters rejected ballot measures in 1994 and 1996 that would have gone further to restrict the state's free-expression guarantee. The Oregon Supreme Court has interpreted that guarantee more broadly than the free-speech right in the U.S. Constitution. A different ballot measure, which the House cleared and sent to the Senate Thursday night, would let local governments regulate public nudity. House Joint Resolution 2 would cover nude-dancing establishments such as the Le Dolls nightclub in Medford, but not other businesses. Patridge said only Oregon and Hawaii do not allow local governments to decide where sexually oriented businesses can go. He said their regulation is desirable because of negative effects reported in planning studies commissioned by several large cities, including New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. But Rep. Judy Uherbelau, D-Ashland, quoted Medford police reports of relatively few substantiated incidents involving Castle Superstores. She also referred to a Mail Tribune story of April 11 that quoted neighbors. "While residents said they did not like that kind of business, they had to admit they had not seen any problems," she said. Uherbelau said her main objection was to the change in the state constitution. "It weakens the fundamental protection of free speech contained in the Oregon bill of rights since 1859," she said. "I know there are those who argue that we are merely zoning and not doing anything to free speech. But what you are zoning is content -- and that is free speech." Uherbelau was the lone dissenter when the measure emerged from the House Judiciary-Civil Law Committee on an 8-1 vote April 29. She said the public, not the Legislature or local officials, should decide by their patronage whether such enterprises stay in business. She said the measure will not satisfy critics who want to ban such businesses. "When you zone, it has to go somewhere," she said. "But do you think the neighborhood where you are going to put it wants it? Or is there a sleaze factor? There are neighborhoods where only `sleazy' people live, and you put it there. But maybe they become `sleazy' because you put all of this business into their neighborhoods." The measure would not apply to businesses in existence when it takes effect, if voters approve it. But lobbyists for some of them have expressed concern that local governments would use zoning authority to make it difficult for them to stay in business. "For cities and counties, this will be like us trying to site a prison," said Rep. Jo Ann Bowman, D-Portland. "Everybody wants them -- so long as they are not in their neighborhoods." But Patridge drew strong support from two Portland city commissioners, and he drafted the measure with help from the Portland city attorney's office. Rep. Randall Edwards, D-Portland, said controversies over Castle Superstores and other sexually oriented businesses affect the state's largest city. "What we are trying to do here is craft a measured response to a growing business that all of us have been contacted about," said Edwards, who voted for the measure. "I will be the first to defend the Oregon Constitution and freedom of speech. But I am also here on behalf of my constituents -- and this is the one issue that gets my constituents more riled up than any other I can think of." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA