VICTORIA, Australia - The rural city of Wangaratta has approved an application for an sex bookshop against strong opposition.
The Wangaratta council said members debated the planning application at the meeting before approving it with a 5-2 vote.
Wangaratta, widely recognized as a municipality that offers a premier provincial lifestyle, has been staunch in its resistance to the shop. More than 670 people had signed petitions against it.
Though many people are against the shop, the council could not refuse it on moral grounds, Mayor Roberto Paino said.
"There's a fair bit of history about these sorts of places being established around Victoria," he said. "We were mindful of previous [Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal] decisions in relation to refusals. To knock it back simply on moral grounds, then we were an absolute certainty to end up in VCAT."
