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COMMUNITY GIVEN SET BACK ON SOUTHWEST ADULT VIDEO LOCATION
By: Paul Goldberg, Staff Writer - 03-22-10 - 12:00 a.m. PDT
Email PaulG@JRLChartsonline.com
Halethorpe,MD residents who have had issues with a local adult video store for more than a decade will have to wait a little longer to find out the fate of the store after last week's hearing on the matter.Meg Ferguson, the code enforcement hearing officer assigned to the hearing, said she will rule within a month on violations at Southwest Video and Adult Boutique at 5648 Southwestern Boulevard.
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About 30 people attended a February 24th hearing at county offices in Towson on a citation that code enforcement officers issued back on December 21, 2009 against Southwest Adult Video store. Southwest was cited for exceeding the percentage of square footage allowed for sexually oriented material under zoning regulations.
Testimony at the hearing suggested that nearly all of Southwest Video's square footage contains sexually related material, in which case the store would be considered an adult entertainment business.
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However Howard Schulman, attorney for Southwest Video, did not call any witnesses to testify and presented no evidence during last week's city hearing. "We don't think the store is bothering anybody," stated Schulman on Tuesday March 2nd.
He furhter stated that he speaks for the owner, Southwestern Boulevard LLC. Baltimore County zoning regulations define adult entertainment businesses as those having a "substantial portion," meaning 20 percent or more, of square footage dedicated to "display or storage of matters or devices depicting, describing or relating to sexual activities."
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Paul Mayhew, an assistant county attorney, stated that the evidence and testimony presented here today "have made it abundantly clear that this business is in clear violation of the county code." Mayhew had called three code enforcement officers to testify and the officers identified photographic evidence and other documents as proof of the video store's violation.
Schulman fired back in his closing argument that "I certainly don't believe the establishment should be shut down," Schulman continued... "But it certainly could be ordered into compliance under the law,". "What the community and what the county is more concerned with is that the place comply with the law," Mayhew said. "What I would ask, your honor, based on this overwhelming evidence, is that they be shut down, which is within your power to do.
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"A more clear violation, I can't imagine," he said. The presence of the adult video store, on Southwestern Boulevard, just north of the Frances Avenue overpass, has irked some residents and community organizations for more than a decade.
Michael McAuliffe, president of the Halethorpe Improvement Association, was among those at last week's hearing hoping the county would act against the video store. He presented a petition with more than 500 signatures opposing the presence of the adult store, as well as letters from three area churches and three area schools in support of his cause, he said.
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He also gave detailed testimony on what he saw when he ventured into the store in December to gather material against its presence in the neighborhood. McAuliffe also presented Ferguson with a stack of printed Craigslist postings by men seeking to meet at Southwest Video with other men for sexual activity, he said.
Schulman did not dispute McAuliffe's description of what he saw in the store. He did object to much of McAuliffe's evidence and testimony on the grounds that some of it was gathered after the Dec. 21 citation and because the citation concerned only the portion of square footage dedicated to adult material.
While Ferguson agreed that much of McAuliffe's material was off-topic, she did, however, accept McAuliffe's materials. "This is an administrative hearing and the rules of evidence are a little relaxed," she told Schulman.
Louis Brocato, a Wynnewood resident, said he attended the hearing to support the Halethorpe Improvement Association. "We just want to go on record as supporting the county's position on this issue," said Brocato, chairman of membership committee for the Wynnewood community group and a member of the board of the nearby Ascension School.
"They ought to either be fined and brought into compliance or closed," he said. Stephen Whisler, a former president of the Coalition for the Preservation of Southwest Baltimore County now a candidate for the area's seat on the County Council, also spoke at the hearing.
Whisler said the current leadership of the coalition agreed to allow him to represent the coalition at the hearing. He said he was present to ask that the county ensure that Southwest Video complies with area zoning. "If it does not or cannot comply, we ask that you take action to stop the business activity from going on at that site," Whisler told Ferguson. "We're just here to register our support for the Halethorpe Improvement Association."
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McAuliffe said the day after the hearing that Southwest started as a regular video store more than 10 years ago. Over the years, it morphed into an adult video store, he said, which the community did't really have a problem with. It was only when the store added video booths that the community had a problem.
Ferguson said her decision could include a fine of up to $600,000, or corrective actions for the adult video store.
"I don't suspect you're going to enforce the $ $600,000 fine," Mayhew said to Ferguson. She declined to comment on whether forced closure of the store was within her power, as Mayhew had suggested, but she did provide a timetable for her decision "Probably three weeks from now I'll issue an order," she said.
