We have gotten more emails regarding the alcohol issues. The email is from a person seemed to agree with me:
Rather catty comment. I’d advise them to ask their community representative or church about helping to educate the community about alcohol. Think proactive not reactive.
The second email was from the original reader, who responded to my response:
Sorry. I misunderstood. I thought this was a site protesting an Adult Store, but this is a site protesting John Cornetta. What I should have said was: The amount of time spent worrying about this subject could be better spent helping those in real physical dangers.
Here is my response to them:
This website is about protesting an Adult Store that is located in a location that is not zoned for adult businesses.
You were the one to bring up the dangers of alcohol. If you have problem with the number of places you can get alcohol in Johns Creek than you can protest that.
We are free to pick which issues to be vocal on. I choose to be vocal against the Love Shack. This does not mean I think that alcohol is without its problems, but this is not an issue I choose to be vocal about at this time.
The fact is that you are making these claims about the dangers of alcohol to put down my protests of the Love Shack. My point is that the same person who owns the Love Shack also wants to sell alcohol, which you find very dangerous.
Another interesting thing is that Mr. Cornetta would not open his restaurant until he had his alcohol permit.
Every few weeks or so I get a comment similar in thought to the following comment:
Facts are always irrelevant when one is attempting to force their personal agenda on others, but here they are:
1. How many liquor stores are in Johns Creek?
2. How many drunk drivers are there in Johns Creek?
3. How many violent crimes due to alcohol are in Johns Creek?
4. How many families suffer due to alcohol in Johns Creek?
Is that okay? Do we turn a blind eye to real problems that cause harm and death? It is legal to buy alcohol, it is legal to buy guns, and it is legal to enjoy yourself sexually.
I can see your point as to how dangerous sex can be.
Since I seem to get this comment a lot I wanted our readers to see my response:
Thank you for you comment. In light of the dangers of alcohol, I am sure you can get your buddy Mr. Cornetta to not serve alcohol at his new restaurant in Johns Creek.
In fact maybe all adult businesses can do the responsible thing and stop serving alcohol due to the dangers.
Fat chance!!!
It always amazes me that people try to tell us what we can and cannot be against. If these people really believed in the dangers of alcohol they could start their own blog highlighting the dangers of alcohol. Instead they make straw man arguments to say that I should not be against porn in our neighborhood because of other “wrongs” in our society. Remember what your mother taught you when you were little – “two wrongs do not make a right”.
The AJC reports that the City of Milton, GA (our sister city in that we became cities on the same day) recently approved adult business restrictions:
In Milton, adult businesses can only locate in areas zoned for industrial and commercial businesses. And the city bars sexually oriented businesses within 500 feet of agricultural or residential property.
The City of Milton, better known for its horse farms and upscale subdivisions, believes that it has effectively shut the door on adult businesses without outright banning them:
Put together, the only places left are along Windward Parkway from Ga. 9 to Deerfield Parkway — where properties have deed restrictions banning adult businesses.
The area is part of a 520-acre mixed-use project developed by Hines Interests Limited Partnership, which imposed the deed restrictions in 1997. Also banned by the covenants are junk yards, jails, sewage treatment plants, and iron smelting factories.
Milton’s restrictions on adult businesses are not without its critics:
Alan Begner, an Atlanta attorney specializing in adult businesses, said he doesn’t believe Milton’s plan would stand up in court.
Not to be outdone on the topic of adult businesses, Mr. Cornetta of the Love Shack fame is quoted:
The owner of the Love Shack, John Cornetta, doesn’t exactly see rural Milton as a hot prospect.
“What makes these people think I would put an adult store in a farmhouse?” he said. “I’m not going to sell adult DVDs to chickens.”
Our friends over at NoPornNorthamption.com has put together an excellent article documenting the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit’s recent Daytona Zoning decision. Please note that it is a long but worthy read. Several points to consider:
- The Court upheld the City of Daytona’s use of secondary impacts as the basis for implementing zoning restrictions on adult businesses. This was done in spite of the fact that lawyers representing adult businesses argued that there has been no documented increase in crime around adult businesses according to the City’s own police records. The Court found that many of the type of crimes associated with adult businesses (public lewdness and prostitution) may not show up in police records.
- The Court stated that there does not have to be any “available” sites for adult businesses as long as there are potential sites for adult businesses in a local jurisdiction. The Court was only concerned that zoning restrictions allowed adult businesses in a sufficient number of locations. The Court was not concerned if these sites were actually available to be occupied by an adult business. For example deed restrictions that prohibit adult businesses on a property that is zoned for adult businesses does not nullify the site from being considered as a potential site for First Amendment purposes. In addition all suitably zoned sites could be presently occupied and not available to buy or lease; again this fact does not does not nullify the site from being considered as a potential site for First Amendment purposes.
The second point is relevant to the Johns Creek Love Shack case. One of Mr. Cornetta’s arguments has been that there are no other ‘available” site for adult businesses in Johns Creek, even though adult businesses are allowed on industrially zoned land. This is because most (if not all) of the industrially zoned land in the City of Johns Creek is in the Johns Creek Tech Park. The Johns Creek Tech Park has restrictive deeds that prohibit adult uses. This fact makes it extremely difficult for an adult business to legitimately locate within the City of Johns Creek even if there are a sufficient number of sites zoned for adult businesses. Hence the battle over the current location (which is not zoned industrial).
The first point will become important if and when the City of Johns Creek zoning regulations related to adult businesses get challenged in court. Since the City of Johns Creek implemented time, place and manner restrictions on adult businesses based on data reasonably believed to be relevant to the City of Johns Creek, it will much harder for opposing lawyers to argue that the City of Johns Creeks restrictions are not based on solid evidence.
According to this article, the City of Johns Creek has gone on the offensive against the Love Shack. The City is trying to get the Superior Court to make the Love Shack comply with Johns Creek ordiances or close down.
“This is a city that is going to enforce its ordinances. It gave due process, and it gave [Love Shack] opportunities to correct the violations,” said Scott Bergthold, an attorney hired by the city. Bergthold is considered a legal expert on sexually-oriented businesses (SOB).
The petition states that Love Shack is an SOB, and therefore, it is in violation of the city’s SOB ordinance on six counts:
• Count 1: Operation without a sexually oriented business license
• Count 2: Operation in unlawful location – proximity to residential parcel
• Count 3: Operation in unlawful location – proximity to alcohol establishment
• Count 4: Operation in unlawful location – improper zoning district
• Count 5: Operation without occupation tax certificate/business license
• Count 6: Public nuisance (Love Shacks continuing violations of the city’s ordinances are contrary to public health, safety and welfare)
Mr. Cornetta, the owner of the Love Shack, says that he is not concerned:
Cornetta said the petition is ‘no big deal,’ citing his more than 15 years of traveling down this road. This is just another day, he said.
“This is what I do for a living. I chew up and spit out local municipalities like Popeye chewed spinach,” said Cornetta.
