No safe harbor for SOBs in Harris County

Last month, the Chron published an editorial calling on the local adult establishments to "drop their legal actions and find suitable properties for relocation", which made me wonder why they thought unincorporated Harris County would be any more welcoming. Looks like I was right to wonder about that.

Worried the city's crackdown on sexually oriented businesses could drive some clubs to relocate to unincorporated areas, Harris County officials said they won't be any more welcoming than their Houston counterparts.

County Judge Ed Emmett said he applauds the city's tough stance on the clubs but wants the county to be ready to prevent them from setting up outside city limits.

"I want to make sure all of them don't move out of the city into the county," he said.

Commissioners Court today will discuss whether such a mass exodus is possible.

Officials say they doubt that because the county has similar regulations to the city, prohibiting sexually oriented businesses from operating near schools, day cares, parks, churches and other facilities.

"Our regulations are similar to the city's, and we'll enforce them just as aggressively," County Attorney Mike Stafford said. "A business won't gain anything by going into the county."

Well, yes they would, if there's a location out there that's more than 1500 feet from a school, residence, church, other SOB, or any other "sensitive area", whatever that means. One presumes there are more such places in the unincorporated parts of the county than there are within the city of Houston. One also presumes they're not exactly in prime areas, which would rather defeat the purpose. And of course, even if there were a suitable place to relocate, it would quickly become unsuitable as soon as someone decided to build a school/apartment complex/church/day care center/other "sensitive" thing within 1500 feet of it. Which gets back to why I still think this law should be struck down, but that's a separate matter. In the meantime, relocation is a nonstarter, so putting the onus on clubs to do that while the city graciously agrees to not harass them is one as well. Either the latest appeal gets the clubs off the hook, or that's all she wrote. I see no other ending to this.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on June 05, 2007 to Local politics