The Florida city has approved an agreement with the owner of an adult video store that would make the business leave its current location after three years.
The legal settlement, approved four to one by the New Smyrna Beach City Commission on Tuesday night, would require Intimate Moments Boutique to move out of its current location at 658 N. Dixie Freeway by June 30, 2009, said a recently published report. The store, owned by Winter Park attorney David Wasserman, also wouldn't be allowed to expand its business, signs or advertising, said City Attorney Frank Gummey.
"One more day is too much for me, so I'm not going to approve it," Commissioner Lynne Plaskett, who cast the sole vote against the agreement, told Melanie Stawicki Azam on the Daytona Beach News Journal.
Other commissioners said they weren't totally happy about the agreement either, but it would end the ongoing legal battle and seemed to be the best deal the city can get.
"We'd rather do this than be in court the next three years," said Mayor Jim Vandergrifft.
After battling the city over adult entertainment zoning and licensing laws, Wasserman filed a federal suit in May 2005 against the city, claiming its adult entertainment zoning and licensing laws are unconstitutional and overly vague.
In March 2005, the City Commission voted to change its adult business ordinance and allow them only in some industrial areas.
Wasserman wasn't at Tuesday's meeting, but he told the Daytona Beach New Journal Wednesday he thought it was a fair agreement under the circumstances. He said he plans to abide by the agreement and vacate the store in three years.
After that, he said, "My intent, if I stay in the city, is to open in a location other than the industrial zone and fight them again . . . I don't like censorship."
