New store in violation of adult ordinance, city says

City ‘cheating’ in its assessment of what the store sells, owner says.

Sandy Springs officials, who have worked since the city’s founding to eliminate adult entertainment within its borders, have told the owner of a newly opened adult-oriented store that it’s in violation of city ordinances and has until Friday to come into compliance.

The store, Tokyo Valentino on Roswell Road, opened earlier this month. CEO Michael Morrison said he believes the city is changing the rules to keep the business from operating.

“The goal is to get us shut down,” he said. “As we comply, they keep moving the finish line back.”

The city’s ordinance calls an “adult bookstore” any shop that uses 25% or more of its floor space for books, DVDs or other visual representations that emphasize sexual activities, or toys and novelties that are used “in connection with specified sexual activities.” The space limits include the aisles used to access those items.

Morrison said an inspector for Sandy Springs counted unrelated

items like lingerie, douches and risque board games as adult materials. The inspector, he said, also didn’t count dressing rooms, behind-thecounter areas and other floor space in the total square footage.

The city, he said, is “cheating” in its assessment of the store, which also sells smoking paraphernalia, shoes, clothes and gifts.

“Is it going to wind up in court?” Morrison asked. “It probably will.”

The city can fine Tokyo Valentino $1,000 a day if it is not compliant with city law.

In an email to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sandy Springs spokesperson Sharon Kraun said the property was not zoned for an adult bookstore and the city’s code enforcement officer found that more than a quarter of its floor area is used for “the ‘display, sale, and/or rental of items’ which are characterized by their emphasis upon the display of specified sexual activities.”

She would not comment further on the notice of violation, which was sent Dec. 2.

Sandy Springs has a history of trying to limit and close adult-oriented businesses. Last year, three strip clubs closed in the city following a 12-year legal battle.

After Sandy Springs formed, in 2005, leaders denied alcohol licenses to the clubs, saying they did not want alcohol and nudity in the same place.

The city’s adult ordinances were among its first acts upon becoming a city. When it passed its first laws, then-Mayor Eva Galambos said the venues “don’t fit what the business community is trying to do.” She and other members of the first Sandy Springs City Council said they worried adult entertainment would hamper redevelopment along Roswell Road.

Morrison, who owns five other adult stores in metro Atlanta, said he had opened an Inserection adult store on Roswell Road in 1997. It closed earlier this year. Morrison said many customers at his other stores come from Sandy Springs, and he thought it was worth reopening in the city.

He said he will fight as necessary to keep the store open.

“It’s just farcical at this point,” he said of Sandy Springs’ continuing legal battles with stores like his. “We’ve been open for two weeks.”