Daytona Grand, Inc. v. City of Daytona Beach

490 F.3d 860, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 15361, 2007 WL 1851169
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJune 28, 2007
Docket06-12022
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 490 F.3d 860 (Daytona Grand, Inc. v. City of Daytona Beach) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Daytona Grand, Inc. v. City of Daytona Beach, 490 F.3d 860, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 15361, 2007 WL 1851169 (11th Cir. 2007).

Opinion

MARCUS, Circuit Judge:

At issue today is the constitutionality of several zoning and public nudity ordinances adopted by the City of Daytona Beach (“the City”) to regulate adult theaters. The owners and operators of Lollipop’s Gentlemen’s Club (“Lollipop’s”), an adult theater in Daytona Beach, sued the City claiming that these ordinances violate the First Amendment. The district court upheld the zoning ordinances, finding that the City had provided a constitutionally sufficient number of available sites for adult theaters, and also denied Lollipop’s claim that it was “grandfathered in” under Florida law. However, the district court struck down the nudity ordinances, concluding that they did not further the substantial government interest in reducing negative secondary effects associated with adult theaters.

After thorough review, we affirm the district court’s determination that the zoning ordinances pass constitutional muster, as well as its ruling that, under Florida law, Lollipop’s is not entitled to grandfather status. But as for the nudity ordinances, we conclude that the City has indeed carried its evidentiary burden of establishing their constitutionality because *863 the ordinances further substantial government interests, and, accordingly, we reverse and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I. Background

A. Zoning Ordinances

In 1981, after years of increasing urban blight and economic decline, the City of Daytona Beach adopted various zoning ordinances in an effort to reduce the perceived secondary effects of adult businesses by limiting the locations where they could open and operate. 1 Among other things, the zoning ordinances permitted adult theaters 2 to open only in the City’s Business Automotive (“BA”) zoning districts, and even there prohibited them from locating within certain distances of churches, schools, parks, playgrounds, or other adult businesses. 3

In the mid-1980s, the zoning ordinances were challenged on various grounds in Function Junction, Inc. v. City of Daytona Beach, 705 F.Supp. 544 (M.D.Fla.1987), aff'd, 864 F.2d 792 (11th Cir.1988) (table). Gerald Langston, the City’s Director of Planning and Redevelopment and a key participant in formulating the zoning ordinances, testified in that case as an expert in urban planning and about the legislative process that led to their enactment. Langston said that, before enacting the zoning ordinances, the City had conducted a local study of urban blight and decay that identified two blighted areas: the old downtown and the beachside. Langston explained that the identification of these areas as blighted was based on characteristics such as: “a significant percentage of deteriorating structures; a large number of small ... lots, which did not allow cars; *864 a notable parking problem; a high incidence of crime, particularly, on the beach-side; and a large percentage of antiquated, underground utility systems, such as drainage, water and sewer systems.” Id. at 547. Langston testified that the blight deterred investment — hotel development ceased in 1975, and in the late 1970’s, Daytona Beach was denominated the “City of Sleaze.” Id.

Langston explained that the City of Daytona Beach then created a Redevelopment Design and Review Board to deal with the blight problem. Id. Langston worked with the Board and testified that it “considered studies of blight in Boston and Detroit by the American Society of Planning Officials in 1979-1980. These studies show strong evidence that the central location of adult uses, like the ‘Combat Zone’ in Boston, causes the blighted area to grow and creates blight in fringe areas.” Id. Langston also opined, “[b]ased upon his education, experience, knowledge of blight in Daytona Beach and his participation in drafting the subject ordinance,” that live nude and seminude entertainment businesses “promote and perpetuate urban decay” and that “adult businesses have impacted on crime in the area surrounding Daytona Beach.” Id.

David Smith, an assistant state attorney who had prosecuted drug and prostitution offenses in Daytona Beach, also testified that “ ‘most definitely’ there were more drug and prostitution offenses in topless bars than in other bars.” Id. at 548. Based in part on this testimony by Lang-ston and Smith, the district court in Function Junction upheld the zoning ordinances. Id. at 552.

In 1993, the City enacted several amendments to the zoning ordinances that, among other things, required adult theaters to obtain pre-approval from a Technical Review Committee before being able to open and operate in the BA districts. In a First Amendment challenge brought by several adult theaters, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida entered a preliminary injunction preventing the City from enforcing the 1993 amendments because, the court found, the plaintiffs were likely to prevail at trial on their claims. Red-Eyed Jack, Inc. v. City of Daytona Beach, 165 F.Supp.2d 1322, 1330 (M.D.Fla.2001) [hereinafter Red-Eyed Jack I],

While the Redr-Eyed Jack litigation was still pending, the City amended its zoning ordinances still again to eliminate the constitutional infirmities identified by the district court. 4 Relevant here, the City once *865 again allowed adult theaters to open in the BA districts without pre-approval. 5 The City also created a new zoning district category, the M-5 Heavy Industrial Zoning District (“M-5”), 6 and ultimately applied it to 210 acres in the western part of the City. 7 Within this new M-5 district, adult theaters were permitted to open without the distance requirements that applied in BA districts. Although the M-5 district consisted mostly of undeveloped land, the City ensured that telephone and power lines were installed in the district’s interior, the county paved a previously dirt road through it, and the City approved a preliminary plat for a fifty-five-acre subdivision straddling that road. 8 As a result of these changes, the district court concluded that the zoning ordinances were constitutional. Red-Eyed Jack, Inc. v. City of Daytona Beach, 322 F.Supp.2d 1361, 1362 (M.D.Fla.2004) [hereinafter Reek-Eyed Jack II]. The court found that twenty-four new sites were available in the M-5 district and that, in concert with one site already found to be available in the BA district, this created a constitutionally sufficient number of sites for the ten adult businesses that were operating or seeking to operate in Daytona Beach at that time. Id. at 1375.

B.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Club Madonna Inc. v. City of Miami Beach
42 F.4th 1231 (Eleventh Circuit, 2022)
Cornell Restaurant Ventures, LLC v. The City of Oakland Park
681 F. App'x 859 (Eleventh Circuit, 2017)
MJJG Restaurant, LLC v. Horry County
11 F. Supp. 3d 541 (D. South Carolina, 2014)
Maages Auditorium v. Prince George's County
4 F. Supp. 3d 752 (D. Maryland, 2014)
Entertainment Productions, Inc. v. Shelby County
721 F.3d 729 (Sixth Circuit, 2013)
Keepers, Inc. v. City of Milford
944 F. Supp. 2d 129 (D. Connecticut, 2013)
Bryan S. Foster D/B/A Jaguars Gold Club v. City of El Paso
396 S.W.3d 244 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2013)
Curves, LLC v. Spalding County, Georgia
685 F.3d 1284 (Eleventh Circuit, 2012)
Ocello v. Koster
354 S.W.3d 187 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 2011)
Peek-A-Boo Lounge of Bradenton, Inc. v. Manatee County
630 F.3d 1346 (Eleventh Circuit, 2011)
Imaginary Images, Inc. v. Evans
612 F.3d 736 (Fourth Circuit, 2010)
TJS of New York, Inc. v. Town of Smithtown
598 F.3d 17 (Second Circuit, 2010)
FLANIGAN'S ENTERPRISES, INC. v. Fulton County, Ga.
596 F.3d 1265 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)
County of Du Page v. LAKE STREET SPA, INC.
916 N.E.2d 1240 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 2009)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
490 F.3d 860, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 15361, 2007 WL 1851169, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/daytona-grand-inc-v-city-of-daytona-beach-ca11-2007.