SPOKANE, Wash. – A federal appeals court panel has upheld the city of Spokane’s ordinance governing the location of adult sex-oriented stores.

World Wide Video of Washington Inc. contended the law was unconstitutional and also that the company was not given a reasonable time to relocate its stores or change the nature of its business.

But a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on May 27 affirmed a decision by U.S. District Judge Alan McDonald that supported the Spokane law.

The ordinance was narrowly tailored “to serve Spokane’s substantial interest in reducing the undesirable secondary effects of adult stores,” the appeals panel said.

Leaders of Spokane in the late 1990s became concerned about adult stores opening in residential areas.

In early 2001, the City Council unanimously passed a law limiting where adult stores could be placed.

The law said adult sex-oriented stores could not be located within 750 feet of a public park, library, school, day care center, church, or other adult business. Adult businesses also could not be within 750 feet of any homes, apartment buildings or farms.

The law also gave existing adult stores one year to either relocate or change the nature of their businesses. Six of the city’s seven existing adult stores would have to be relocated under the ordinance.

The City Council also decided to establish more sites where adult stores could be located.

On Feb. 27, 2002, World Wide, whose stores remain open in their original locations, filed a civil rights lawsuit contending Spokane’s ordinance violated the First Amendment protection of free speech.

The company also contended that the adult stores did not contribute to the depreciation of property or result in more calls for police service, as the city alleged in enacting the law.

The company said opponents of its stores were more motivated by the adult nature of the products, rather than the secondary effects on the neighborhoods.

But McDonald in September 2002 granted Spokane’s motion for summary judgment and upheld the ordinance. World Wide appealed.

The appeals court said the U.S. Supreme Court has held that cities are not required to conduct their own studies on the negative effects of adult businesses before passing local laws.

The appeals court found that World Wide did not effectively prove that adult stores failed to have a negative impact on the neighborhoods where they were located. Citizen testimony about pornographic litter was in itself sufficient evidence to justify the ordinance, the court found.

“If the stores’ products are consistently discarded on public ground, municipal regulation may be – and, in this case, is – justified,” the court found.

Calls for comment to the city and World Wide’s lawyer were not returned.