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from www.ajc.com – After six months of wrangling, the Jonesboro City Council on Monday voted to grant a business license to allow an “Exotic Pleasures” store to open at 8228 Tara Boulevard.
In January city officials denied a business license to Chatri Novelty Inc., the proposed store’s ownership company, saying owners wanted to open an adult bookstore in a location that was not zoned for such a business.
Last week Jason Ferree, a company co-owner, threatened to sue the city if he wasn’t granted the business license by the June 13 council meeting. His main argument: The city denied him a license while allowing gas stations and an adult video store, both of which sell adult movies, to operate in Jonesboro.
Jonesboro Mayor Luther Maddox told the AJC on Tuesday that the city issued the business license on the advice of city attorney Steve Fincher.
“The city attorney read over our ordinance and told us we didn’t have standing to deny the license,” said Maddox.
Ferree said about 12 percent of his offerings could be classified as adult-themed and that is within the Jonesboro city code, which classifies an adult bookstore as “any commercial establishment in which more than 20 percent of floor space is used for the display or offer for sale of any book or publication, film or other medium or device which depicts sexually explicit nudity or sexual conduct.”
The mayor said the city ordinance would be “fine-tuned and looked at real closely” going forward.
Ferree had argued that the store would be a “general retail” outlet that would sell some adult-themed items. He said his store would mostly sell “clothing, apparel, body jewelry and a lot of odds and ends.” He described the store as being similar to the novelty chain Spencer’s Gifts.
He said adult-themed items in his store would be cordoned off in a separate room from other merchandise. A customer would have to show identification to enter the adult area, he said.
Chatri Novelty Inc. owns two similar stores in Columbus, one of which is also called Exotic Pleasures; the other is named Pleasureworld, according to Ferree.