Planners May Restrict Adult Store Sites : Ventura: The panel will consider limiting such businesses to a few industrial areas. Some church groups want them banned entirely.

Two years after a proposal to open an adult-oriented business raised a furor in Ventura, planning commissioners will consider Tuesday a permanent ordinance banning such businesses in all but a few industrial areas.

Most of the streets where adult theaters, bookstores and other businesses could set up shop are located south of the Ventura Freeway, roughly between Victoria Avenue and Arundell Avenue, city planners said.

The city has had an interim ordinance for the last two years that allowed a pre-existing adult-oriented business on Main Street to continue operating, but prohibited any new such businesses from opening anywhere in the city.

Council members approved the interim law after church groups and downtown merchants objected to a request to open an adult-oriented business near the Ventura County superintendent of schools office on Main Street in Ventura.

The new ordinance prohibits adult-oriented businesses within 500 feet of schools, homes, churches, parks, or anywhere else children might congregate.

“I don’t think we can eliminate (adult-oriented businesses) because of the First Amendment, so this seems like a reasonable compromise,” Planning Commissioner Chuck Thomas said.

The new law “would not set anything in stone,” said Mitch Oshinsky, a city planner. In theory, adult-oriented businesses could locate in any of the designated areas, but in practice, the city would consider each request on a case-by-case basis, Oshinsky said.

The proposed ordinance restricts adult businesses to certain industrial zones and recommends specific blocks within those zones, he said.

Those areas include the neighborhood around the intersection of Callens Road and Market Street, targeted for light-industrial uses, and some blocks along Palma Drive, near its intersection with McGrath Street. Also designated are the area around the intersection of Walker Street and Saratoga Avenue, and some industrial blocks near Stanley Avenue, just west of Ventura Avenue and near California 33.

Some merchants along Callens Street, the largest area designated for adult-oriented businesses, said an adult bookstore or theater would not be a problem for them.

“Our business is wholesale, we have a warehouse here, so we don’t get walk-in traffic and I wouldn’t particularly care,” said Sandie Arruda, manager of the Peruvian Bead Co. on Callens. “I don’t think it would make any difference to us.”

Link Teffeteller, who owns a dental laboratory down the street, said even though he might not like to have such a business next door, he would not object.

“Let’s face it, no one wants to be next door to an adult-oriented business,” he said. “But as a businessman, I would never want to dictate to private enterprise.

“Besides,” Teffeteller said, “the reality here is yes, this area would be a long way from the younger population.”

But some church group members say they are unhappy with the proposed law because it stops short of banning adult businesses from the city entirely.

“Nobody wants that in their community, except for those who stand to profit from it,” said Associate Pastor Jonathan Stockstill of Gold Coast Baptist Church.

Stockstill said city officials want the sales tax revenue from the adult businesses, and are thus reluctant to drive them out of Ventura.

But Stockstill said he expects his 100-member congregation and other churches in Ventura to oppose the ordinance.

“We’ll definitely mention it this week to our church,” Stockstill said. “Churches can mobilize fairly quickly.”

The only existing adult-oriented business in Ventura is Three Star Books on Main Street. The shop, which has curtains shielding its windows and door from outside view, has not caused trouble in the neighborhood, some nearby merchants say.

Mark Cassio, manager of Three Star Books, said the store only admits people over 18 and tries to attract as little attention to itself as possible.

“We don’t advertise, we’re very low-key,” he said. “We catch people at the door and ask them for their IDs all the time. We’re really careful about carding people.”

The city’s Planning Commission will vote on the ordinance Tuesday, and their recommendation will then go the City Council, which will hold two public hearings on the ordinance in May.

The public hearings are scheduled for May 16 and May 23. If passed by the council, the ordinance would go into effect 31 days after approval.

Times staff writer Peggy Y. Lee contributed to this story.

FYI: The Ventura Planning Commission will meet tonight at 7 in the City Council chambers at City Hall, 501 Poli St. The meeting is open to the public.