WARNER ROBINS, Georgia — from www.macon.com-After being blocked for about a year and half through inaction by the city, an adult gift and novelty store has opened in Warner Robins.

Starship Enterprises of Atlanta, which operates 20 other similar stores in Georgia and Chattanooga, Tenn., opened its Starship Gifts & Novelties for Couples store May 13 at 2099 Watson Blvd. in a building that previously housed an auto parts store.

Warner Robins City Attorney Jim Elliott said Starship was issued a general business license and allowed to open as part of the agreement to settle a lawsuit the company filed against the city.

Starship was able to obtain a general business license rather than a more restrictive adult business license because it agreed to limit the amount of sexually explicit merchandise it displays and sells to less than 50 percent of its total merchandise and sales.

“Under our city ordinances, an adult business is one that has more than 50 percent adult material for sale,” Elliott said.

He said no business has applied for or received an adult business license since the ordinance was adopted in 1997.

Kelly Rogers of Atlanta, Starship’s president, said his company will have no trouble following the requirement that less than half its sales be adult merchandise.

“We adjust our merchandise according to the local laws where we have stores,” he said. “(The amount of sexually explicit material sold) can be anywhere from 15 to 75 percent, depending on where the store is.”

Starship began applying for a business license and building permit to renovate the rented building in October 2007. According to the lawsuit complaint Starship filed with Houston County Superior Court, after receiving no response from city officials other than a general comment that Mayor Donald Walker didn’t want the business in Warner Robins, the company filed a lawsuit this year.

Walker said last week that the city settled the lawsuit on advice of its attorney but that he didn’t want to comment further other than to say city officials will monitor the store to be sure it complies with the agreement.

“They have to keep the porn to less than 50 percent, so we’ll be watching them,” Walker said.

In addition to XXX-rated videos and sex toys, the store sells clothing, tobacco products, lotions, novelties and gifts that are not sexually explicit.

Elliott said the settlement agreement also limited the store to non-suggestive signage, required it to darken the windows and doors so that merchandise cannot be seen from outside. The agreement also requires Starship to admit no one younger than 18.

Rogers, who said his company has stores in metro Atlanta, Athens and Columbus, decided to expand to Warner Robins because of its growth and lack of competing stores selling similar items.

“Business has started off real nice, and we think it will be a good location for us,” Rogers said.

Other than the delay in receiving a business license, Rogers said he’s unaware of any other protests against the store opening in Warner Robins.