From www2.canada.com/- Vancouver’s last remaining porn theatre doesn’t have to close down, the city decided Wednesday. But the owner of the Fox Theatre must operate her business with more care.

“It’s OK,” Xiaohua “Lisa” Huang, [pictured] owner of Fox Enterprises Ltd., told reporters about conditions the city imposed on her licences for the theatre she’s owned for 11 years at 2321 Main St.

Vision councillors Heather Deal and Kerry Jang and NPA Coun. Suzanne Anton ruled at a business licence hearing that the auditorium of the theatre must be checked for illegal activity every half hour and that theatre staff must keep a log of the inspections. Huang must meet with the city’s chief licence officer to discuss preventing problems at the theatre from affecting the neighbourhood.
Fox Theatre owner Xiaohua “Lisa” Huang and her lawyer D. Stuart Gray attended a business licence hearing at city hall Wednesday.View Larger Image View Larger Image
Fox Theatre owner Xiaohua “Lisa” Huang and her lawyer D. Stuart Gray attended a business licence hearing at city hall Wednesday.
Dan Toulgoet
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Huang wasn’t upset with the decision, but balked at a recent police report.

Following the first business licence hearing on the Fox Theatre, March 24, two plainclothes Vancouver police officers reported visiting the Fox for an hour on April 10.

Constables Robert Kazuta and Robert Hirst said they saw a man smoking a cigarette in the dark theatre in contravention of city bylaws. Kazuta saw a man unzip his pants almost as soon as he entered the theatre and perform a self-involved sex act before leaving. Kazuta said he visited the concession and after pressing Huang bought a condom from her for one dollar.

He also noted the door between the theatre and the alley was insecure and found he could enter the auditorium through it. Hirst said he overheard a staff member trying to sell cigarettes to a patron.

Suggesting parts of the police report didn’t add up, Huang admitted to the Courier she sees men masturbating in her theatre but never two people smoking and three people having sex, as has been previously reported.

Anton told Huang she was disappointed that after warnings last fall and the first hearing in March, police found illegal activities in the theatre. But she didn’t believe it was harming the neighbourhood.

Veronika Baspaly, co-owner of the upscale clothing shop Lark next door to the Fox, told the Courier in March that Lark experienced no problems with the Fox until the Venus Theatre closed 10 blocks to the north. Lark staff soon found themselves stepping over needles and stopping people from having sex behind their shop. They witnessed a sex worker strip to change her clothes in their doorway during business hours.

But lately, Baspaly told the Courier Wednesday, things have improved.

“I don’t know what is happening in and around the theatre now, which is fantastic,” she said. “As long as nothing bad is spilling out onto the street there’s absolutely nothing for us to be worried about.”

Jang called the 35-year-old theatre a relic in a changing neighbourhood.

Huang’s lawyer, D. Stuart Gray, suggested the theatre may not last. Huang’s business licence expires at the end of the year. Her lease is up in July 2010.