Spokane, Washington- Spokane City Council members last week voted unanimously to end a five-year legal battle with three neighborhood sex shops through an agreement that gets the shops to comply with limits on the sale of explicit material in neighborhood and office zones.

The council said that constitutional free speech protections prevent them from getting tougher on neighborhood sex shops.

“We can’t eliminate this business, federal regulations don’t allow us that latitude, but we can certainly control it,” said Councilman Al French.

The resolution approved Monday directs the city attorney’s office to enter a consent decree in federal court that will force three sex shops to limit the amount of explicit material sold in the shops. The decree ends a city lawsuit against the sex shops, and allows them to remain open if they change their business practices.

Assistant City Attorney Milt Rowland said the stores operated by World Wide Video of Washington Inc. will have 120 days to come into compliance with the consent decree or face closure. The stores are at 1811 E. Sprague, 3813 N. Division and 4811 N. Market.

An attorney for the company already has signed the decree.

Rowland said the city is going to seek compliance from a fourth store at 54 E. Wellesley, which is under different ownership and was not involved in the city’s lawsuit against World Wide Video.

Under the consent decree, the World Wide Video stores must reduce the floor area devoted to adult material to no more than 20 percent and inventories of explicit material to no more than 25 percent. Any adult material must be partitioned from the rest of the business and access limited to adults.

Also, the stores will no longer be able to advertise triple-X merchandise, which Rowland described as a victory for the city because the courts would not impose such a restriction.

Rowland explained that federal courts have given cities power to regulate the stores to reduce what they call the secondary effects of pornography on the neighborhood, but can’t force them to stop selling adult material.

Explicit wrappers are sometimes discarded as litter, and the stores can be a magnet for illegal activity, city officials have said in explaining the secondary effects.

The consent decree, which has the force of a permanent injunction, requires the stores to keep their outdoor areas cleaned up and to lock their trash containers. Employees will also be required to check outdoor areas for illegal activities.

The city also gained the right to check the business records of the store to enforce the decree and bring civil contempt proceedings if violations are found.

The city’s 2001 anti-porn law seeks to turn neighborhood sex shops into more conventional boutiques with gifts, lingerie, other clothing and furnishings. The law, which was amended and strengthened in 2003, uses the zoning code to prohibit adult sex shops in residential and office zones and within 750 feet of any homes, schools, day care centers, libraries, churches and playgrounds, as well as any other adult entertainment shops.

The law sets a general limit of 30 percent explicit material in neighborhood shops. The consent decree with World Wide Video sets a tighter limit of 25 percent of the inventory.

One adult sex shop is located in the downtown area in a commercial zone away from residential and office uses and does not have to comply with limitations on the amount of explicit material it carries.

Council members said the consent decree will likely not change the three shops into mainstream businesses. “I’m under no delusion this is going to change the nature of this business,” said Councilman Rob Crow.

AdvertisementIn other business, the council unanimously approved a resolution calling on the planning department and Plan Commission to come up with new regulations that would protect views along the Spokane River from being lost to tall buildings.

Any measures limiting building height are not expected until 2007 as part of a broader update of the city’s shoreline master plan.

The council also approved spending $260,000 to hire a California-based consultant to perform an organizational efficiency study to help the city find ways to increase revenue or reduce costs. The study is part of an ongoing effort to end the city’s perennial budget problems that led to a voter-approved, two-year property tax increase for 2006 and 2007.