City Denies Permit for Adult Bookstore

Drawing cheers and applause from a crowd of nearly 200 residents, city officials announced at a council meeting Monday night that a permit had been denied for a 24-hour adult bookstore on the site of the former Cracker Barrel Restaurant.

The city’s adult business ordinance prohibits bookstores or other sexually oriented facilities from operating within 300 feet of a church or school.

In denying the request of F Street Bookstore, a chain based in San Diego, city officials said the site proposed at Orangethorpe and Western avenues is closer than 300 feet to Sequoia Athletic Club and Conference Center, which holds church and school activities.

San Diego attorney Andy Zmurkiewicz, who represents the F Street Bookstore chain, said Tuesday morning that “the grounds asserted for denial of the permit application are preposterous.”