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CITY OF TONAWANDA TARGETING ADULT VIDEO STORE CHAIN
By: Andy Powell, Staff Writer - 03-09-10 - 9:15 a.m. PDT

Email Andy@JRLChartsonline.com

Questions are being raised in the courts over the right of a a business owner's right to carry adult videos for rentals and sales of DVD's in the Town of Tonawanda. Constitutionality is at the forefront on this one.







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In a court session this past Thursday March 4, 2010, Attorneys Daniel T. Cavarello and attorney Paul J. Cambria Jr., who are representing the mega video chain Family Video which has over 550 retail stores in 18 states and employs 5,000 people, made their cases on the town’s bid for an injunction to block the Colvin Boulevard store from selling or renting adult videos.

State Supreme Court Justice Donna M. Siwek did not indicate when she would issue her decision on the case at press time. Cambria took a shot at town law that applies to adult-use businesses, saying it is too vague and unconstitutional.


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Such businesses in the town are restricted to general industrial districts and a law that is on the books in several communities which state that adult video outlets cannot operate in key districts of the city.

According to the Tonawanda town law, an adult bookstore or adult video store is an establishment “in which a substantial or significant portion of its stock-in-trade” is sexual in nature, “with a segment or section devoted to the sale or display of such material.”

“Segment” and “section” have to be quantified, Cambria stated in his brief. “Otherwise, it’s over broad.” “You can go to Borders right now or Waldenbooks, and you can buy adult movies there,” Cambria said. Playboy magazine can be bought at the local Wilson Farms.


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“Every one of those stores fits into their definition. They can’t just isolate it to us,” stated Cambria.

“We do not believe that our local law is unconstitutional,” Cavarello told the press.

Tonawanda, NY took the 550 retail store chain Family Video to court after a resident complained about a back room at the store in which adult videos are offered for both sales and rentals.

The town contends the site, in a general business district, is not zoned for “adult use” businesses.

When a back room was noted on architectural drawings before the store was built in 2006, Family Video “indicated it was going to be used for storage,” Cavarello stated Justice Donna Siwek.



Suddenly, complaints were pouring in from the neighborhood to city officials that adult videos were offered in back rooms at some of the Illinois-based chain’s other stores.


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Town officials stated that a Family Video representative assured them they wouldn't’t be carried at the retail location in Tonawanda.“The town had every reason to believe they were not going to carry those materials,” Cavarello stated.

Cambria said that while the former town supervisor was told that, for the present, the store would not offer adult videos, the company was reserving its right to do so in the future. Cavarello declined to comment after the court hearing was over.

JRL will keep an eye on this case and will bring you updates as the case continues. Watch the news coverage on this by clicking on the JRL Movietron.

Visit www.familyvideo.com