Dottie's Dress Shop, Inc. v. Village of Lyons

729 N.E.2d 1, 313 Ill. App. 3d 70, 246 Ill. Dec. 1
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMay 26, 2000
Docket1-98-3118
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 729 N.E.2d 1 (Dottie's Dress Shop, Inc. v. Village of Lyons) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dottie's Dress Shop, Inc. v. Village of Lyons, 729 N.E.2d 1, 313 Ill. App. 3d 70, 246 Ill. Dec. 1 (Ill. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

JUSTICE GREIMAN

delivered the opinion of the court:

We need not resort to the oft-repeated observation of United States Supreme Court Justice Stewart:

“I could never succeed in intelligibly [defining pornography.] But I know it when I see it ***.” Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184, 197, 12 L. Ed. 2d 793, 803-04, 84 S. Ct. 1676, 1683 (1964) (Stewart, J., concurring).

The trial court reversed the findings and orders of the Zoning Board of Appeals of the Village of Lyons (hereinafter the Board or the Village) that denied a use and occupancy permit to Dottie’s Dress Shop, Inc. (hereinafter Dottie’s), when Village authorities discovered that Dottie’s principal items for sale were plastic replica female genitals, dildos, blow-up dolls, vibrators, nipple clamps, spiked collars, masks, whips, and an extensive inventory of condoms and riding crops and that, prior to opening the store, a sign was erected identifying the enterprise as Seka’s Exotica, “Seka” being the name of a female pom star.

For the reasons expressed below, we reverse.

Dottie’s applied for a business license and occupancy permit in the Village of Lyons within a B-l zoning district in the Village and in its written application represented that its business was to be “retail clothing, apparel, accessories.”

Thereafter the zoning administrator of the Village observed that a sign had been erected without a permit which did not identify the enterprise as Dottie’s Dress Shop but, instead, the sign advertised “Seka’s Exotica Life Style Clothing and Accessories.”

Seka is apparently a well-known porno film star of the 1970s and 1980s. Thereafter, at the Village’s request, the sign was removed.

Some time thereafter Dottie’s requested a final occupancy inspection, and the Village zoning administrator and Village manager toured the premises and testified that on the west wall of the premises were shelves holding as many as 500 items of sexual paraphernalia.

The rear wall of the premises revealed that approximately 20 to 24 pieces of lingerie were on hangers on a single standing rack. The east wall of the premises revealed “leather goods such as spiked leashes, masks, whips, riding crops, collars, lubricants, stimulants, [and] blow-up dolls.” They also encountered a counter that contained “handcuffs, massage oils, lubricants, stimulants and condoms of all shapes, sizes and colors.”

It was not surprising that the zoning administrator denied the occupancy permit after concluding that the premises he had viewed were definitely not a dress shop.

The owners of Dottie’s thereafter requested a reinspection of the premises, and although the zoning administrator testified that there were more items of lingerie, the premises were not being used as a dress shop but, rather, it was being used for the sale of sexual paraphernalia.

In his testimony, the zoning administrator stated that the number of clothing items was increased to approximately 100 items; however, all of the sexual paraphernalia encountered on his first inspection remained in the store.

The Village concluded that Dottie’s was not a retail clothing store and did not fall within the 93 commercial enterprises — antique shops to veterinary clinics — permitted as a matter of right in a B-l district under the Village’s ordinance.

The Village further concluded that under the Village zoning code such an enterprise could be pursued in an I-1 industrial zone after the issuance of a special use permit and that such use would be classified as an “Adult Use.” The ordinance provides explicit language defining an adult bookstore, adult entertainment cabarets and adult motion picture theaters. 1 2After these definitions, the ordinance provides a definition of “Adult Use” as follows:

“(4) Adult Use. Adult bookstores, adult motion picture theaters, adult entertainment cabarets, and similar uses.” Village of Lyons Zoning Ordinance, art. IV (1993).

The Village’s Zoning Board of Appeals denied Dottie’s an occupancy permit, and appeal for administrative review was taken to the circuit court of Cook County. The circuit court reversed the Board’s findings and decision denying Dottie’s an occupancy permit and issued a writ of mandamus directing the Village to issue the occupancy permit and business license. The Village appeals, and in reversing the judgment of the circuit court, we affirm the decision of the Zoning Board of Appeals of the Village of Lyons.

The Village argues that Dottie’s intended use of the premises was clearly not one of the enumerated uses set forth in the B-l zoning classification and that a business enterprise devoted to selling sexual paraphernalia and sexual-oriented devices is properly sited in an industrial zone under the penumbra of “Adult Use.”

Dottie’s urges us to affirm the trial court and to find that it ought to be granted a B-l occupancy permit because other business enterprises sell some of the items it sells and are granted such a license: Walgreen’s (No. 30 under the B-l ordinance), which sells condoms; department stores (No. 29 under the ordinance) that sell candles; toy shops (No. 88) that sell toys; or gift shops (No. 43) that sell some of the items that one might expect to find at Dottie’s. Even more cogent, there is no definition of what merchandise can be sold in a hobby shop (No. 47) or any limitation on what a person may consider a hobby.

The trial court was not free to substitute its own judgment as to the factual findings in an appeal from an administrative agency. Heft v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 31 Ill. 2d 266, 270-71 (1964). Generally, a court will not overturn the conclusion of an administrative agency unless that conclusion was against the manifest weight of the evidence or was arbitrary and capricious. Greer v. Illinois Housing Development Authority, 150 Ill. App. 3d 357, 384 (1986). Moreover, if there is competent evidence in the record that supports the Board’s findings, those findings should be affirmed. Scadron v. Zoning Board of Appeals, 264 Ill. App. 3d 946, 949 (1994). Here the Village’s zoning administrator toured the premises and testified in great detail as to the contents of Dottie’s. He provided an inventory count of each area in the premises and computed the volume of items based upon the square footage of each area in the store. He meticulously described each category of merchandise and gave Dottie’s due credit for the 20 or so pieces of lingerie hanging on a rack at the rear of the store.

Twenty pieces of lingerie, however, do not a dress shop make! The Board was certainly reasonable in its conclusion that Dottie’s business did not fit into any of the classifications under the Village’s ordinance. Dottie’s is engaged in the business of selling sexual paraphernalia, and although Walgreen’s may sell condoms, it is hardly in the business of selling sexual paraphernalia. A similar view is true with respect to Toys-R-Us, which sells toys, or Marshall Field’s, which sells creams and lotions, or, for that matter, Jiffy Lube, which sells lubricants.

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729 N.E.2d 1, 313 Ill. App. 3d 70, 246 Ill. Dec. 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dotties-dress-shop-inc-v-village-of-lyons-illappct-2000.