Dania Code Officer Testifies Against X-Rated Store
By Jennifer Lebovich, The Miami Herald
Jan. 3–A Dania Beach adult video store is digging in its heels, despite a city ruling the business must move to a different part of town.
A city code enforcement manager testified at a hearing today that he had a less-than-innocent experience at Your A to X Video Outlet recently. While investigating the store, the officer claimed he was propositioned for sex by two men in the store and witnessed two others involved in a sex act.
But an attorney for the store at 1921 Stirling Rd. vowed to fight the ruling.
“We’re not just going to pack up and go away,” Jamie Benjamin said. “We believe the city of Dania violated our constitutional rights in their attempt to run us out of town.”
The business is in violation of a 2001 law that relegates adult businesses to areas zoned for industrial, research, office or marine use, city officials said. Those areas are mostly west of Interstate 95, between Interstate 595 and Griffin Road.
Your A to X Video Outlet was put on notice by Mitchell Kraft, the city’s code enforcement magistrate, that it had 30 days to comply with the law — by relocating — or be fined $250 a day.
“There’s absolutely no alternative avenue open for adult establishments other than a rock pit or Bass Pro Shops,” Benjamin said.
Adult entertainment establishments also must be at least 1,000 feet from residential property, houses of worship, schools, public parks or places selling alcohol.
ENFORCEMENT DELAY
Dania Beach recently began enforcing the 2001 zoning law, and gave the city’s four adult businesses until September to move.
Nicholas Lupo, the code enforcement manager, visited the video store twice along with a Broward Sheriff’s Office deputy in plainclothes.
Lupo handed over the evidence during the hearing — an adult magazine and video and a novelty item — in a white plastic bag, the words “Thank you” imprinted on the outside.
Lupo also described a back room, a sign on the door advertising a $5 entry fee.
Behind the door, Lupo said he saw individual booths where patrons paid to watch movies, a large TV playing an adult video and a couch where he witnessed two people engaged in a sex act.
Benjamin hammered away at the city’s law and its definition of an adult business, objecting to much of the testimony offered by the code enforcement officer.
In Dania Beach, businesses that devote less than 20 percent of their floor space to adult videos or novelties are not considered adult entertainment and may stay put.
The city contended that about a third of the business’s floor space is devoted to adult novelty items, magazines with depictions of sex acts and adult videos, in violation of the law.
Benjamin argued the city did not measure the area of the building and had not taken into account the items in the store — such as condoms, lingerie and lubricants — that are sold at any number of businesses in Dania Beach.
STRIP CLUB SUIT
Last month, the city’s code enforcement magistrate found the Fantasy Lounge strip club on Griffin Road violated the city law, but the club is still open in violation of a city order. Lawyers for the nude club filed suit in October.
The city’s two other adult business — the Fetish Box and Video Showcase — scaled back their inventory to comply with the law.
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Miami Herald
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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