Opinion ID: 377140
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Zoning Provisions

Text: 13 Plaintiffs next attack the zoning provisions in the ordinance on the ground that they constitute an invalid prior restraint on speech. The provisions in question require that an adult use, including an adult bookstore, shall not be located within 500 feet of an existing adult use; within 700 feet of any district zoned for low, medium, or high density residential use; within 500 feet of any pre-existing school or place of worship; or in a building containing an establishment that in any manner sells or dispenses alcoholic beverages. 11 Distances are to be measured,in a straight line, without regard to intervening structures or objects, from the property line of the adult use, to the nearest property line of another adult use, school, place of worship or district zoned for residential use. 12 14 We first address the issue of plaintiffs' standing to attack these provisions. As an initial matter, plaintiffs are not subject to these restrictions, because, under the grandfather clause of the ordinance, 13 the bookstores which they own or in which they are employed may continue in their current locations so long as they are not converted into some other type of adult use. Plaintiff owners do not allege that they desire to move the location of their bookstores, to open new bookstores, or to convert their bookstores into some other form of adult use. The inapplicability of the zoning provisions to plaintiffs' bookstores does not, however, deprive plaintiffs of any personal stake in the outcome of a challenge to their validity. As is discussed in Part VI-A of this opinion, infra, plaintiff owners also contest, and have standing to contest, the validity of the ordinance's licensing requirement. 14 As we conclude in Part VI-A, the validity of the license requirement turns on the validity of the zoning provisions. If the licensing requirement is valid, the owners are required to obtain a license, for which they must pay a $100 license fee. They therefore have the requisite personal stake in the outcome of a challenge to the zoning provisions to meet standing requirements under Article III. 15 Although plaintiffs urge that the zoning provisions are unconstitutional as a whole, we need not reach the validity of all of them in order to decide whether the licensing requirement has been imposed in accordance with a valid zoning scheme. The portion of the zoning provisions that requires that adult uses be separated from one another by a distance of at least 500 feet is constitutional under the reasoning advanced in Young v. American Mini Theatres, Inc., supra. 15 Even though here, unlike in Young, 16 the city has not demonstrated a past history of congregated adult uses causing neighborhood deterioration, we agree with the district court that a city need not await deterioration in order to act. A legislative body is entitled to rely on the experience and findings of other legislative bodies as a basis for action. There is no reason to believe that the effect of congregated adult uses in Peoria is likely to be different than the effect of such congregations in Detroit. The Peoria City Council found, in the preamble to the ordinance, that congregated adult uses cause deleterious effects, and the Supreme Court in Young found that such effects were sufficient to justify a zoning requirement that adult uses not be located in close proximity to one another. 17 That ruling is controlling here. 16 The validity of the requirement that adult uses be separated by 500 feet is enough to support the licensing provisions sustained in Part VI-A, infra. It is thus unnecessary, for purposes of considering the validity of the licensing provisions, to decide whether other zoning restrictions are valid. We hold that plaintiffs lack standing to challenge these other restrictions. The part of the district court's judgment that sustains them is vacated, and plaintiffs' claim with respect to these restrictions is dismissed. 18