They didn't mind the sexy lingerie in the window, but they fumed over the sexual novelties and chatzhkehs elsewhere in Lovers Package - and now they've forced the adult store to shut down. And the owner says the city of Phoenix hasn't heard the end of it yet.
Maybe it was the invitation Lovers Package offers shoppers. ("Try us on for sighs!") They've operated in a strip mall (no pun intended) since February, but they're closing up at the end of September, under sever pressure from neighbors, their landlord, and the city itself.
Chief business officer Phyllis Heppenstall tells the Arizona Republic the matter is going to court and she plans to sue Phoenix for financial losses based on the city's illegally applying a 1992 law aimed at sexually-oriented businesses. "(Phoenix) has violated my First Amendment rights," she says. city, neighbor and landlord pressure. "It has compromised my position with the landlord. It's the taxpayers, unfortunately, who will have to pay for what has happened here."
But for three who helped lead the opposition - Louise Cole, Edward Davis, and Susan Perkins - Happenstall is blowing smoke. "I think it's a porn place," Cole tells the Republic. "It doesn't belong in a place…where children can have access to it."
Happenstall operates a string of adult shops in Washington and Arizona. She tells the paper Lovers Package was profitable despite opposition in the past few months. "What you have here," she tells the Republic, "is a handful of conservative people who I think don't truly represent the majority."
Davis, who heads up another neighborhood group, says all the opponents wanted was for Lovers Package to conform to city zoning regulations. "It was just a matter of time until the problem was solved."
City zoning administrator William Allison says the strip mall where Lovers Package operates doesn't have the zoning clearance for an adult business. The zoning authority ruled 20 August, upholding a sweeping city law which was aimed at stopping any widespread appearances of new adult-oriented stores.
Perkins says the lingerie in front was no big deal but the sex toys in the rear of the store were another question. "(I)f you need to buy those types of things to keep a romance going," she tells the Republic, you really don't have much of a romance."
But Happenstall says Lovers Package stores - there is a second one in northwest Phoenix - don't fall under the ordinance because they offer what she calls "passive entertainment", as opposed to things and acts featuring live performers.
The landlord for the store space the shop rents tells the Republic he expected a women's boutique but not the kind of sex-oriented shop Lovers Package was. He asked the store to leave after the zoning authority ruling.
