Grand Brittain, Inc., D/B/A Brittain Adult Bookstore, D/B/A Grand Street Adult Theater and Bookstore v. The City of Amarillo, Texas

27 F.3d 1068, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 25434
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedAugust 24, 1994
Docket93-1434
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 27 F.3d 1068 (Grand Brittain, Inc., D/B/A Brittain Adult Bookstore, D/B/A Grand Street Adult Theater and Bookstore v. The City of Amarillo, Texas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Grand Brittain, Inc., D/B/A Brittain Adult Bookstore, D/B/A Grand Street Adult Theater and Bookstore v. The City of Amarillo, Texas, 27 F.3d 1068, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 25434 (5th Cir. 1994).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Grand Brittain, Inc., operator of an adult bookstore and an adult theater in Amarillo, Texas, sued the city alleging that local adult business ordinances violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments. * The district *1069 court held portions of the ordinances unconstitutional, severed them, and upheld the remainder. Grand Brittain, on appeal, alleges a lack of adequate procedural safeguards and a failure to permit adult businesses to operate. We affirm except in one respect.

On June 12, 1990, Amarillo passed-Ordinance No. 5862 amending the zoning chapter of the Amarillo Municipal Code by adopting adult business regulations governing viewing booths, requiring spacing from uses determined incompatible by the city commission, regulating zoning district locations, requiring specific use permits, and requiring amortization of nonconforming uses. On the same day, the city passed Ordinance No. 5863 amending the amusements chapter of the Amarillo Municipal Code by requiring adult businesses to obtain a license from the Chief of Police, requiring compliance with other municipal codes, prohibiting minors from the businesses, and regulating the viewing booths.

In June 1991, the Texas Legislature amended Chapter 243 of the Texas Local Government Code to give district courts jurisdiction to hear appeals from licensing decisions affecting adult businesses. Amarillo passed Ordinance No. 5942 on December 24, 1991, amending the amusement chapter of the Amarillo Municipal Code, as already amended by Ordinance No. 5863, to limit the time in which adult business licenses must be granted and to incorporate the appeal provision of Chapter 243 of the Texas Local Government Code.

I.

Ordinance 5862 requires that structures housing adult businesses be located at least 1,000 feet from residential zoning districts and from residences, churches, public or denominational schools, hospitals, licensed child care facilities, hotels, motels, parks, playgrounds, play fields, public stadiums, other adult businesses, or religious, charitable, or philanthropic institutions. Grand Brittain operates adult businesses within 1000 feet of residential properties and, under Ordinance 5862, must relocate them within three years after the effective date of the ordinance to a light or heavy industrial zone.

Under City of Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc., 475 U.S. 41, 46-48, 106 S.Ct. 925, 928-929, 89 L.Ed.2d 29 (1986), Ordinance 5862 must preserve ample alternative means of communication. Grand Brittain complains that the ordinance will force its establishments into locations that cannot support a commercial enterprise. The district court isolated 63 locations as “legally and physically suitable and feasible” for adult businesses, of which the court noted that 90% are “undeveloped” and without infrastructure and utilities, that no more than five have existing structures, and that only two have available buildings. Grand Brittain accepts these findings but complains that adult businesses cannot relocate to these sites and still have adequate means of communication.

The district court properly found that Ordinance 5862 did not unreasonably harm Grand Brittain’s business prospects. In City of Renton, the Court upheld a similar zoning ordinance. The outcome did not rest on the availability of “commercially viable” alternative-sites, but on the fact that the city provided a “reasonable opportunity” for the relocation of displaced adult businesses. Id. at 54, 106 S.Ct. at 932. Ordinance 5862 may not guarantee Grand Brittain desirable commercial properties, but it affords a reasonable opportunity to bid in the commercial real estate market:

We have recognized the difference between promising a commercially viable alternative site and affording a reasonable opportunity to operate- an adult business at a new location. In Woodall v. City of El Paso, 950 F.2d 255, 261 n. 5 (5th Cir.), modified, 959 F.2d 1305 (5th Cir.1992) (per curiam), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 113 S.Ct. 304, 121 L.Ed.2d 227 (1992), as modified, we held that land is not reasonably available if its physical and legal characteristics make it impossible for any adult business to relocate there. -We do not suggest that whether a location is *1070 economically desirable is not relevant to an alternative means calculus. See also Lakeland Lounge v. City of Jackson, 973 F.2d 1255 (5th Cir.1992). Indeed, physical and legal characteristics and economic desirability are interrelated. Rather, the question is whether the city offers sites from a commercial real estate market — that is, sites that businesses can locate on. Whether a particular business can succeed on such sites is not the question and it could not be, as a practical matter.

As noted in Topanga Press, Inc., et al. v. City of Los Angeles, 989 F.2d 1524, 1529 (9th Cir.1993), almost all legal and physical impediments to use may be recast as economic barriers. The Topanga Press court explained that the sites at issue in Renton and Woodall were part of the commercial real estate market. Id. at 1529-30. In short, City of Renton and Woodall ensure that adult businesses have access to a commercial real estate market, but do not guarantee that a specific adult business can obtain existing commercial sites at low cost and with “market” access to assure its prosperity. City of Renton, 475 U.S. at 54, 106 S.Ct. at 932; Woodall, 950 F.2d at 255.

Our question then is whether the 63 sites identified by the district court give Grand Brittain a reasonable chance to compete in the commercial real estate market. Bill Moore testified that most sites have electricity available and that many of them have gas available, but that some of them would require water and sewer extensions. He stated that approximately ten of the chosen sites had topographical problems that made them undesirable and that only one lacked street access. Mr. Moore also testified that no alternative sites were landlocked or under current use by a government entity. Jimmy Davis questioned the appropriateness of some of the sites as alternative venues under the zoning restrictions, but did not question that a number of these sites could be transformed into productive commercial property. We agree with the district court that the city furnished adequate alternatives.

II.

In FW/PBS, Inc. v. City of Dallas, 493 U.S. 215, 227-30, 110 S.Ct.

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27 F.3d 1068, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 25434, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/grand-brittain-inc-dba-brittain-adult-bookstore-dba-grand-street-ca5-1994.