Opinion ID: 603788
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Hardship Inquiry

Text: 23 There are two questions then that must be answered when determining whether an adult business has been given a reasonable opportunity to relocate. The first question is whether relocation sites provided to a business may be considered part of an actual business real estate market. The second question is whether, after excluding those sites that may not properly be considered to be part of the relevant real estate market, there are an adequate number of potential relocation sites for already existing businesses. 24 The first question is the most tricky. For the reasons stated above, we do not find the distinction between economic suitability and physical suitability helpful in answering this question. Rather, we are left to the simple, yet slippery, test of reasonableness when attempting to discern whether land is or is not part of a market in which any business may compete. Inquiry into the question of whether it is reasonable to consider a particular location site as part of the commercial real estate market may focus either on the physical characteristics of an area or on the cost of altering or developing the area to change its physical characteristics. 25 The case law offers clues as to what sort of land and/or structures reasonably may be said to comprise the relevant real estate market. Renton found that the city had met its obligation to provide alternate locations by providing 520 acres of land consisting of ample accessible real estate, including acreage in all stages of development from raw land to developed, industrial, warehouse, office and shopping space that is criss-crossed by freeways, highways, and roads. 475 U.S. at 53, 106 S.Ct. at 932. Renton did not mention, however, that part of the 520 acres offered to the adult businesses consisted of an oil tank farm, a horse racing track and a sewage treatment facility. 26 Subsequent to Renton, the Eighth Circuit in Alexander refused to consider economic impact but did consider whether there were potential commercial sites available. The Alexander court concluded that numerous sites were potentially available ... [since] under the ordinance theaters of this sort have access to at least 6.6% of the total acreage of commercial land; within the available areas are a myriad of block faces, each a potential relocation site. 928 F.2d at 283. In Dumas v. City of Dallas, 648 F.Supp. 1061, 1071 (N.D.Tex.1986), aff'd, 837 F.2d 1298 (5th Cir.1988), aff'd in part vacated in part, 493 U.S. 215, 110 S.Ct. 596, 107 L.Ed.2d 603 (1990), the district court restated the rule against consideration of economic impact. The court then cited with approval Basiardanes v. City of Galveston, 682 F.2d 1203, 1214 (5th Cir.1982), which held that areas located among warehouses, shipyards, undeveloped areas, and swamps did not provide adult businesses with a reasonable opportunity to relocate. 648 F.Supp. at 1071. In contrast, Dumas noted that the plan before it permitted relocation in areas with no impediments except for the possibility that as a matter of business judgment these relocation sites were undesirable. Id.; see also Function Junction, Inc. v. City of Daytona Beach, 705 F.Supp. 544, 552 (M.D.Fla.1987). 27 The courts' findings in these cases lead us to hold that a particular relocation site may be considered part of the relevant real estate market when the following conditions are met. First, although Renton stressed that the First Amendment only requires a relocation site to be potentially available rather than actually available, the requirement of potentiality connotes genuine possibility. The Fifth Circuit has suggested that: 28 [When a] business is operated pursuant to a lease that commits the property to the present tenant for its business purposes for a term of years, the property may be effectively unavailable to adult businesses or any other business enterprise. 29 950 F.2d at 262. 4 ; cf. Alexander, 928 F.2d 278 (the record clearly shows that other owners of adult businesses were able to find suitable relocation sites). We need not determine whether the Fifth Circuit is correct. Here we need determine only that property is not potentially available when it is unreasonable to believe that it would ever become available to any commercial enterprise. 30 Second and focusing our attention on relocation sites which are within manufacturing or industrial zones, relocation sites that are reasonably accessible to the general public may also be part of the market. Third, areas in manufacturing zones which have a proper infra-structure such as sidewalks, roads and lighting may be included in the market. Fourth, when a relocation site suits some generic commercial enterprise, although not every particular enterprise, it too may be said to be part of the real estate market. While it is constitutionally irrelevant whether relocation sites located in industrial or manufacturing zones suit the particular needs of an adult business, potential sites must be reasonable relocation sites for some commercial enterprise before they can be considered part of the relevant market. Consequently, whether one defines a warehouse, a swamp, or a sewage treatment plant as physically or economically unsuitable, it is not reasonable to define these sites as part of the real estate market that any business would choose. 5 31 Fifth, and most obvious, those relocation sites which are commercially zoned are part of the market. 32 We emphasize that assuming a relocation site is part of the relevant market, it is not relevant whether a relocation site will result in lost profits, higher overhead costs, or even prove to be commercially infeasible for an adult business. The issue is whether any site is part of an actual market for commercial enterprises generally.