Wichita [The Wichita Eagle]- Some of Wichita’s adult entertainment businesses will probably ignore a new zoning law designed to force them to close or relocate by the end of the year, predicted a lawyer who handles obscenity cases.

And it isn’t clear whether the city would file lawsuits to shut the stores down if owners don’t take the new law seriously.

That sets up something of a showdown starting New Year’s Eve, when a law approved by the City Council two years ago takes effect.

The law limits businesses with adult entertainment licenses to areas zoned for limited industrial and commercial development.

That will force at least three stores to close, relocate or test the city’s willingness to take the store owners to court.

Charlie O’Hara, a Wichita attorney who has represented several adult entertainment stores in obscenity cases, said he and some store owners don’t believe the city has the right to displace established businesses.

“I guess it’s OK to look at it on the Internet at home, but it’s not OK to go to a store, bring it home and look at it,” O’Hara said.

Jan Beemer, who led the charge to close the stores, said the difference is that people who live near the shops have to deal with decreased property values and sex-related garbage that sometimes drifts onto their lawns.

“We expect the city to make sure the law is enforced,” she said. “You get rid of them, your crime goes down.”

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

The shops also will have to 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 the adult video stores out.

Attempts to reach several owners and operators of Wichita’s adult video stores were unsuccessful.

Senior Assistant City Attorney Kelly Rundell said she couldn’t comment on whether the city will file lawsuits at its first opportunity in early 2008.

O’Hara said he hasn’t heard of an impending action, but he’ll be ready.

“I assume if they try to do it we’ll be back in court,” he said.

The city’s law raises questions about First Amendment free speech issues as well as property rights, O’Hara said.

“It’s just politics,” he said. “It’s a bunch of people playing politics. At least the politicians keep attorneys in business, and I guess the newspapers too.”

Even before the new city law begins to pressure adult video stores, Operation Southwind, the group that led the effort to force obscene materials out of town, is pressuring a new business: Family Video, an Illinois-based company with more than 450 stores in 14 states.

Some Derby residents recently protested one of the stores in their town, and now Southwind is focusing on the company’s three locations in Wichita.

Beemer, president of Operation Southwind, said her group would like stricter city laws that classify stores with a certain percentage of floor space or inventory as adult entertainment businesses, which would be subject to the new zoning laws.

The group’s intention was to make the community aware of the video stores’ adult inventory, she said.

Pete Dominguez, one of the group’s members, told City Council members last week that the three Family Video stores in Wichita have X-rated movies and “rooms where videos can be viewed.”

Council member Paul Gray questioned whether Dominguez knew that for sure.

Dominguez told the council he didn’t know whether the store has a television or some kind of coin-operated machine for viewing videos.

Then he said: “I have not been in the room.”

Gray said the council should move cautiously.

“I don’t want to sit here and start smearing people,” he said. “Until we know otherwise, I don’t want to degrade them.”

Mayor Carl Brewer and council member Jim Skelton asked the city attorney’s office to investigate.

A reporter for The Eagle visited the three Family Video stores in Wichita after the council meeting.

Each store has a similarly-sized “adult” section in the back corner just beyond the restrooms that is isolated by walls and a door that says “Adults only” and “must be 18 to enter.”

Inside, there were several hundred selections that have less graphic images and titles than those that are sold and rented at stores that specialize in adult content.

There were no viewing rooms, televisions, or DVD or video players.

Convex mirrors above the room allow clerks at the front registers to see people who are in the adult section.

In general, to fall within the new zoning law, a store’s “principal business purposes” must be selling items that “depict or describe ‘specified sexual activities’ or ‘specified anatomical areas,’ ” according to city code.

The adult section of the Family Video stores is smaller than the video game section and perhaps one-tenth the size of the stores’ general DVD/video section.

Calls to Family Video were referred to a district representative. The district representative did not respond to a message.