It appears that the Smart Growth Strategy Program of the Suffolk City Council isn’t so smart after all—their Unified Development Ordinance (UDO), the city’s zoning rulebook, makes no mention of adult businesses whatsoever, an oversight that local officials are saying means that adult retailers aren’t permissible.
Greg Sakas, owner of Casual Fun Products Inc., a North Carolina-based chain that sells adult novelties, magazines and videos, begs to differ. He claims that the city is violating his civil rights by denying him a business license.
After last weeks appeal to the Planning Commission subcommittee was turned down, with no explanation, Sakas threatened to sue.
''The city is violating my First Amendment rights,'' Sakas told the Virginian Pilot. ''They're zoning out a business considered legal in the state of Virginia. If we go to court over this, I'm going to try for damages.''
To that end Sakas has retained the services of Barry N. Covert, a senior partner in the Buffalo, N.Y., firm of Lipsitz, Green, Fahringer, Roll, Salisbury & Cambria.
Covert, who also represented Sakas during his appeal process, suggests that the Suffolk City Council isn’t only violating his client’s First Amendment rights, but also his Fourteenth Amendment rights of due process by ignoring the current ordinances established in the UDO.
“They don’t have any specific ordinances regarding adult establishments in their zoning regulations,” Covert explained. “In order to keep us from operating they came up with a fictitious distinction between adult establishments and retail establishments. It’s a classic “zone out,” an attempt to use zoning laws to keep adult establishments out of a city.
According to Covert, “zone outs” have been successfully defeated across the country, something he expects will happen in the Sakas case as well.
“The only real question is will they settle before they get the lawsuit or after it,” Covert said, noting that if the case actually went to trial, the city of Suffolk would be responsible for attorney’s fees and possibly even damages to cover lost revenue if it were found that the city lost the case.
While city officials have attempted to defend their refusal to issue a permit for Sakas to operate by claiming that their constituents are against an adult business location in this city located 20 miles from Norfolk, a clear majority backed the establishment of an adult business in Suffolk in an online poll conducted by the Pilot.
Although online polls are not considered scientific, 56 percent of the over 1,000 people who chose to respond to the poll were in favor of adult businesses compared to 36 percent of respondents who were against the idea. Eleven percent of respondents didn’t care one way or the other.
