Opinion ID: 603788
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Excluding Offered Sites under Renton From Relevant Market

Text: 35 The first issue is whether the relocation sites offered by the City are part of the business real estate market. 36 The Adult Businesses' geographical expert, Michael Taugher, conducted an extensive survey of the City to determine which geographical areas within the City would be permissible as potential sites for establishing or relocating these adult businesses. Mr. Taugher found that there are 11,613.1 acres of what the parties call definitionally available relocation sites where the City would allow an adult business to exist. Out of these 11,613.1 acres, however, Mr. Taugher concluded that much of the land was not truly available. 37 Mr. Taugher based his findings on what he termed physical or practical considerations. He found the following: 1) thousands of potentially available acres are submerged beneath the Pacific Ocean or the outer harbor of the Port of Los Angeles; 2) some of the land is presently being used as landing strips for the Los Angeles Airport; 3) two hundred acres are currently being used as landfill; 4) 600 acres are currently used as the Van Nuys airport; 5) 4,357.51 acres are currently used by the Port of Los Angeles and/or oil refineries; and 6) about 230 acres are used for petroleum gas storage. In addition, he found that the ITT Gilfillian Defense plant, the General Motor Assembly plant, a portion of Children's Hospital as well as other large businesses or institutions are located on definitionally available sites. He concluded that out of the 11613.1 acres of definitionally available land, only 7440.9 acres are realistically available for an adult business. Only 0.18% of this realistically available land is in a commercial zone. 38 Bruce Bailey, a real estate expert employed by the Appellees, used criteria similar to Mr. Taugher's. Mr. Bailey excluded those relocation sites that he considered physically inadequate such as parcels of land now occupied by junk yards, steel yards and car storage lots. He also excluded parcels of land that were occupied by single purpose buildings such as shipping yards, the Los Angeles airport, and a large oil refinery complex (id.). Mr. Bailey concluded that there were perhaps 120 potentially viable relocation sites that met the requirements of the zoning ordinance. 39 The City contends that these experts arrived at their conclusions by considering: 1) the commercial viability of the relocation sites; and 2) whether these sites were actually as opposed to potentially available. The City is correct that at times Mr. Bailey improperly considered factors such as whether relocation sites were operatively expensive or whether adult businesses would not be welcomed by landlords. Notwithstanding this, Mr. Bailey's final estimation of available relocation sites resulted from his reliance on factors other than commercial viability. 40 Applying the factors we have enumerated above, we believe that the areas eliminated from consideration by Mr. Taugher and Mr. Bailey are properly excluded under Renton since these areas do not fall within the relevant market. First, much of the land the Adult Businesses' experts considered unsuitable land is not potentially available. Land under the ocean, airstrips of international airports, and sports stadiums are not relocation sites likely to ever become available to the Adult Businesses, or indeed to any commercial business. Second, and turning to those relocation sites which are located in manufacturing zones, many of the areas excluded by Appellees' experts are not readily accessible to the public. Third, many of the sites the Adult Businesses' experts found to be unsuitable are inadequate for any generic commercial business. While Renton did not consider undeveloped land to be unsuitable for relocation, the Adult Businesses' experts testified that the City here has provided the Adult Businesses relocation sites that are developed in a manner totally incompatible with any average commercial business. Fourth, many of the excluded relocation sites appear to lack a proper infra-structure. In short, aside from the question of commercial viability, it is unreasonable to consider the acreage eliminated from consideration by the Adult Businesses' experts as relocation sites that fall within the business real estate market. 41