Opinion ID: 603788
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Sufficiency of the Relocation Sites Within the Market

Text: 42 Once the areas that are not part of the market are excluded, the question becomes whether the remaining acreage provides the Adult Businesses with a reasonable opportunity to relocate. The parties agree that there are presently 102 different adult entertainment businesses in the city of Los Angeles. Of these 102 existing businesses, the City located five which it believed to be in compliance with all of the various restrictions of § 12.70. The Adult Businesses' expert Mr. Taugher concluded that all but one of the 102 adult entertainment businesses could not meet the requirements of the ordinance. 43 At first glance, the 120 sites deemed practically available by Mr. Bailey would appear to be constitutionally sufficient, given that there are approximately only 102 adult businesses now in operation in the City of Los Angeles. Yet a more careful analysis of the evidence suggests otherwise. First, the number of businesses that need to relocate may be well higher than 102 since under the ordinance, single stores that sell two sorts of adult entertainment are to be considered multiple businesses and thus cannot operate at a single location. 44 Second, the estimation of the quantity of sites available within the market may well be inaccurate. Like the ordinance considered in Walnut Properties, Inc., 861 F.2d 1102 (9th Cir.1988), this ordinance imposes a 1,000 foot separation requirement between any two adult businesses. This means, however, that as soon as any particular site is occupied by a new adult business, any other adult entertainment business is automatically precluded from relocating upon any other definitionally available plot within a contiguous 72 acre circle around the first business. 45 Mr. Taugher did not work out how much acreage was available after the 1,000 foot restriction was factored in to his evaluation. However, since many of the definitionally available areas were adjacent to each other, he concluded that acreage available to the tenth or twentieth business to relocate would be dramatically less than the percentage of area definitionally available to the first adult business. We have not estimated the number of sites available in either the commercial or the manufacturing zones of the city. However, it is clear from the map in the record that once the 500 foot residential restriction is factored in, the definitionally available locations are clustered together in several parts of the City. There is no doubt that the 1000 foot restriction between any two adult businesses would severely reduce the actual number of potentially available relocation sites. In addition, Mr. Taugher testified that he was not sure of the accuracy of his estimate of definitionally available sites. He did not determine whether portions of existing structures that were within a definitionally permissible area fell within a prohibited zone. 46 A corollary point is that there is a possibility that some of the sites included in the relevant market may be included improperly. If so, this also would reduce the number of reasonable sites potentially available. While Mr. Taugher roughly estimated the amount of land that could be considered physically or practically available, he did not determine whether there was a further decrease in available land due to factors such as inaccessability, lack of proper infra-structure such as lighting, road and sidewalk access, or the presence of other disabling characteristics of the site. In sum, a risk exists that a comparison between the estimation of the total number of adult businesses and the total available acreage is misleading. 47 Therefore, the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding that there would be serious hardship to the Adult Businesses if an injunction against enforcement of the ordinance was not granted.