Porn Shops on Agenda for Wichita, Kan., City Council

Jul. 30–During his campaign for Wichita City Council, Jim Skelton kept hearing about an adult entertainment business on South Broadway.

Skelton said the sex-related business brought in prostitutes and drugs. People urinating outside the building was common.

But even worse, he said, it was near a church and in a residential area.

Tuesday, the City Council will vote to extend a moratorium on allowing new adult-oriented businesses through November.

The additional time will give the City Council time to change the licensing and zoning laws for adult entertainment businesses, which could force some of the existing businesses to move or close.

And one of the new zoning requirements would require such businesses to be at least 500 feet from churches, schools, parks or other adult businesses.

In February, the City Council issued a moratorium on licenses for new adult entertainment businesses. Wichita has 16 of them now, typically video stores, bookstores and theaters.

But one vocal critic, Wichita lawyer Charlie O’Hara, questions how much of an effect these changes will really have, and why escort services aren’t being targeted.

O’Hara has represented adult entertainment businesses.

Adult businesses already have to be 500 feet from a school or park or church to get a license. And many already are in commercial areas.

Under the proposal, the city would require these businesses to be in areas zoned as general commercial, or general or limited industrial.

Other zoning changes appear to be more drastic.

If a church or park or school were to move within 500 feet of an existing adult business, the adult business would have to move within two years.

O’Hara said this seems “rather unfair” and should be studied further.

John Schlagel, who works for the zoning department, said he didn’t know how many of these businesses might be forced to move.

Several City Council members said they didn’t know why escort services wouldn’t be subject to the same scrutiny.

The moratorium doesn’t apply to escort service licenses, and the zoning changes wouldn’t either. More than 15 escort businesses are licensed in Wichita.

The classified section in Friday’s Eagle showed at least 11 advertisements for escort services.

One offered “frisky French maids,” another “girls gone wild,” and one simply said, “Seduction Express, no tipping required.”

O’Hara said the City Council is being “political” in its quest to limit the number of adult businesses and not escort services.

“They needed something that’s considered bad, and it is the adult businesses,” O’Hara said. “They’re easy to pick on. It makes good political fodder.”

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