NEW ALBANY DVD, LLC v. City of New Albany, Indiana

362 F. Supp. 2d 1015, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 162, 2005 WL 639620
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Indiana
DecidedJanuary 3, 2005
Docket4:04-cv-00052
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 362 F. Supp. 2d 1015 (NEW ALBANY DVD, LLC v. City of New Albany, Indiana) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Indiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
NEW ALBANY DVD, LLC v. City of New Albany, Indiana, 362 F. Supp. 2d 1015, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 162, 2005 WL 639620 (S.D. Ind. 2005).

Opinion

ENTRY GRANTING PLAINTIFF’S SECOND MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION

BARKER, District Judge.

This matter comes before the Court on Plaintiffs Second Motion for Preliminary Injunction of Defendant’s adult entertainment code, Ordinance G-04-10. Two evi-dentiary hearings on the issues of the constitutionality of the code and the applicability of the amortization provision of the ordinance to Plaintiff precede this order. On May 5, 2004, we primarily heard testimony on the factual and legal predicate for Defendant’s closure of Plaintiffs business. It was agreed that the parties would complete any outstanding administrative procedures and report to the Court by May 30, 2004. On November 9, 2004, we heard expert testimony on the First Amendment issue of whether the Defendant’s adult entertainment ordinance is a lawful “time, place and manner” restriction. For the reasons given *1017 below, we GRANT Plaintiffs motion and enjoin enforcement of the ordinance until the Court’s resolution of the substantive merits of the case.

Factual Background

The facts appear elsewhere in greater detail; see this court’s entries from July-22, 2004, granting the City’s Motion to Remand, 1 and July 22, 2004, denying the City’s Motion to Dismiss. 2 Nevertheless, we include a summary of those facts relevant to the issues before us in this motion.

Defendant, City of New Albany (“City”), enacted an adult entertainment ordinance in March 2004. Plaintiff, New Albany, DVD (“DVD”), is a retail business located at 601 West Main Street in New Albany which, despite its intent to sell and rent sexually explicit materials for take-home use only, is not currently in operation. It is DVD’s inability to operate at that location that has given rise to this litigation.

I. Background Facts

Plaintiff purchased the West Main Street property in 2003. The property was, at the time of purchase, zoned for commercial uses. 3 Plaintiff remodeled the building 4 , and upon completion, scheduled the final inspection required for the issuance of a Certificate of Occupancy (“CO”). The morning of the final inspection, February 19, 2004, Plaintiff was told by a city official that the inspection had been can-celled for DVD’s failure to comply with certain building and zoning provisions. 5 Later that evening, February 19, 2004, the New Albany City Council met and adopted a six-month moratorium on the authorization of any licensing of a sexually oriented business. 6 The moratorium was supplanted a month later, on March 18, 2004, by the enactment of Ordinance G-04-10 (“the Ordinance”), the scope of which is the regulation of sexually oriented businesses. See infra.

On the morning of February 19, 2004, Plaintiff was prevented from operating its business for failing to complete city building and zoning requirements. The next day, Plaintiff faced a second obstacle to opening for business when its intended commercial use was banned by the moratorium. Within a month, a third obstacle to its operating an adult book and video store at 601 West Main Street was created by the enactment of the new Ordinance which prohibited operation of a sexually-oriented business within 1,000 feet of a church, *1018 since DVD’s premises are located within 1,000 feet of the Main Street United Methodist Church at 516 West Main Street.

Undaunted by the mounting and shifting obstacles, DVD applied for the ILP at the conclusion of the May 5th hearing, which application was rejected by the City on May 14, 2004, for the following stated reasons: (1) the zoning restrictions contained in the Ordinance prohibited an adult business from operating in that location 7 ; and (2) even if the proposed use were permitted, there were miscellaneous safety issues relating to parking spaces and the location of the pole sign. Status Report, Docket # 61, Exhibit, Letter dated May 14, 2004. DVD subsequently submitted an amended application for an ILP, which, again, also was rejected, this time solely for the reason that the recently enacted Ordinance forbids the plaintiffs proposed use. The City acknowledged that the miscellaneous other problems had been satisfactorily resolved. Docket # 77, Exhibit, Letter dated July 19, 2004, page 2.

II. The Ordinance

The Ordinance targets sexually oriented businesses as a category of commercial uses associated with a “wide variety of adverse secondary effects including ... personal and property crimes, illicit and unsanitary sexual activity, illicit drug use, decreased desirability of and negative impacts on the use of surrounding properties, blight, litter, and sexual assault and exploitation.” Ordinance See. 1(B). One type of “sexually oriented business” defined by the Ordinance is the “Adult Video Store” or “Adult Bookstore” which dedicates thirty percent (30%) or more of its stock-in-trade to books, magazines, films and video cassettes which depict “specified sexual activities” or “specified anatomical areas.” Ordinance Sec. 2(H)(1). Plaintiff meets this definition of a sexually oriented business and, thus, is subject to provisions regulating location, permits, inspections, hours or operation and configuration of the premises.

The most immediate obstacle to Plaintiffs lawful operation is its location. Section 3(A) of the Ordinance, also Section 156.079(m)(b)(2) of the City Zoning Code, 8 makes it a violation to establish, operate, or cause to be operated an adult bookstore: (1) within 1,000 feet of a house of worship; (2) within 1,000 feet of a residential district; and (3) within 500 feet of any dwelling. As noted above, DVD’s premises are located 175 feet from the Main Street United Methodist Church. Additionally, in rejecting DVD’s ILP, the City 9 cited DVD’s proximity to a residential district (“[a]n R-4, Multi-Family, high density district is located 115 feet to the north of the proposed site”) and to an adjacent dwelling.

Although with respect to its motion for preliminary injunction, DVD asks the Court to consider the overall constitutionality of the Ordinance, DVD might still be able to operate despite the zoning restrictions, apart from its constitutionality, if the amortization provision in the Ordinance were found to apply to DVD. The amortization provision reads, in pertinent part:

A pre-existing “Sexually Oriented Business,” lawfully existing in all respects prior to the effective date of this ordinance, may continue to operate for two (2) years following that date in order to *1019 make a reasonable recoupment of its investment in its current location.

Ordinance, Section 4(A).

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Related

NEW ALBANY DVD, LLC v. City of New Albany, Ind.
581 F.3d 556 (Seventh Circuit, 2009)
Plaza Group Properties, LLC v. Spencer County Plan Commission
877 N.E.2d 877 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2007)

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362 F. Supp. 2d 1015, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 162, 2005 WL 639620, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-albany-dvd-llc-v-city-of-new-albany-indiana-insd-2005.