NEW PORT RICHEY - Adult novelties, sexually explicit videos, racy magazines - you can sell them all and still not be considered a sexually oriented business under county law.
So says the County Attorney's Office, which has sent letters allowing two adult businesses to stay in place after determining the county's sexually oriented business ordinance doesn't apply to them.
As long as the businesses don't offer live dancing, lingerie modeling or onsite viewing of adult movies, they don't fall under the restrictions of the new ordinance, Assistant County Attorney Barbara Wilhite wrote in the June 27 letters.
The businesses in question, the Adult Toy Chest at 12408 Ramfis Road near County Line Road and Love Video at 11511 U.S. 19 in Port Richey, rent and sell adult videos and DVDs, but the movies are not watched at the stores.
The Adult Toy Chest also offers novelties, magazines and racks of lingerie.
Wilhite's letter signals a change in fortune for both businesses, which received notice from zoning officials in May that the shops would not be grandfathered under the new ordinance. Neither had renewed its occupational license on time.
Without grandfathered status, the owners of these businesses could have been forced to limit their offerings or move to an industrial zone, where the ordinance pushes new sexually oriented businesses.
When the issue went to the County Attorney's Office for review, however, Wilhite determined neither business fell under the ordinance. She sent a similar letter to The House of Fun at 2530 U.S. 19 in Holiday, though county officials already had determined that novelty shop was exempt from the ordinance.
The letter was welcome news to Joseph Cavalier, owner of the Adult Toy Chest, who feared he would lose his business if he had to start over somewhere else.
"I'm happy," he said Monday. "I never felt that I had a smut type of business."
But Cavalier did find Wilhite's reasoning somewhat odd.
"I carry the XXX-rated movies in both DVD and VHS, plus I carry lotions and potions and other stuff: handcuffs, novelty whips and stuff like this," Cavalier said. "That is for adult entertainment, so yes, I do consider myself a sexually oriented business."
The county is drawing the distinction between his shop and others, he said, "to try to avoid a lawsuit."
Gerard Alfes, owner of Love Video, declined to comment.
Meanwhile, the fate of another business remains unclear. Nite Images, a lingerie modeling shop owned by The Playground Inc. at 4408 U.S. 19 in Holiday, also received a letter in May saying it did not meet the grandfathering requirements.
It, too, failed to renew its occupational license on time, and there are questions about how long the business has been in place. Wilhite was not available Monday to comment on that business.
- Bridget Hall Grumet covers Pasco County government. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6244, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6244. Her e-mail address is hall@sptimes.com
