Opinion ID: 743923
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Barrier Exception

Text: The district court held that the City's interest in enforcing its Ordinance was obviated because both the Corona La Linda and Park Lane communities were shielded from any possible adverse effects by the presence of certain artificial and natural barriers. In enjoining enforcement of the Ordinance against Vicary, the court reasoned that barring Vicary from running her topless bar under the City's 750-foot setback requirement would burden First Amendment freedoms more than was essential to the furtherance of a governmental interest. Vicary, 935 F.Supp. at 1089 (quoting Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc., 501 U.S. 560, 571-72, 111 S.Ct. 2456, 2463, 115 L.Ed.2d 504, 515 (1991)). We conclude that the district court abused its discretion in creating an exception to the ordinance in a manner that more properly lies within the province of the City's legislative body. Moreover, the court's exception introduces possibly fatal vagueness into an ordinance that, at least on its face, is clear and specific. See Smith v. County of Los Angeles, 24 Cal.App. 4th 990, 1006-07 (1994) (invalidating statutory buffer zone provision for being insufficiently narrow, objective, and definite). In addition, the exception embodies a principle that is subject to unduly expansive application. Not only would every adult business be able to contest various zoning restrictions, but under the reasoning of the district court, a factory or landfill might have a cause of action for locating in a residential zone so long as the location seemed to offer arguably equivalent alternatives to the existing zoning restrictions. For these reasons, we reverse the decision of the district court to the extent that it authorized Vicary's adult entertainment use on a theory of equivalent alternatives to the existing ordinance's distance requirements.