The store, Zorba’s Adult Shop, was in violation of a new regulation passed last year, which requires adult stores to have an unobstructed view of the entire interior of the building. Zorba’s contains private video booths, but the council’s legal department has warned against enforcing the new ordinance, due to a lawsuit settlement between the store and Scottsdale in 1995.
The council announced it won’t enforce the ordinance before digesting the confidential memo from its legal department and, at the request of Councilman Tony Nelssen, tentatively scheduled a Jan. 30 public meeting to discuss the matter.
“We’re trying to find an area of agreement before enforcing new regulations,” Mayor Mary Manross said in a press conference.
The new regulations, adopted last December, included a provision that would have forced Zorba’s to remodel extensively or shut down the adult video facilities portion of its business. But most of the new regulations against sexually oriented businesses were overturned by Scottsdale voters in the September 2006 primary election. However, regulations pertaining to the video facilities were not included on the ballot, which created the conflict with the court settlement between Zorba’s and Scottsdale.
“It does conflict, but the issue comes down to how enforceable is the settlement agreement,” Councilman Jim Lane said.
City Attorney Deborah Robberson told the Scottsdale Tribune that she knew Zorba’s had sued the city and that there had been a settlement, but that she was not familiar with the details of the settlement, which “wasn’t seemingly relevant.” Robberson added that the two sides are talking, and neither has decided to challenge the other in court.
The council had claimed that Zorba’s was originally targeted due to a private investigator’s report last year that he’d found physical evidence of sexual acts taking place in the booths.
Neither Zorba’s owner, Merlyn Albright, nor his Los Angeles-based attorney John Weston were available for comment at post time.