Has the Love Shack gone legit?

A Fulton County Superior Court judge threatened to throw owner John Cornetta in jail, or fine him, or padlock the store, or all of the above if he didn't abide by the city's rules.

So on March 14, Cornetta sent a team of people and a truck to clear out most of his naughty inventory.

"We did it on advice of counsel," Cornetta said. "He said we had to knock the number [of adult materials] down. It was a pain."

He has reduced the number of adult videos and magazines to one small back room that used to house just the gay videos. Plain purses adorn the six racks that used to display eye-popping videos five deep. A portion of the wall that once exhibited soft-core and hard-core porn magazines now offers comic books.

To make sure Cornetta is toeing the line, the city is sending in code enforcement officers every day.

The city maintains that the Love Shack, located at Jones and State Bridge roads, is in an area not zoned for adult businesses.

Johns Creek and Cornetta went to court, and Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville told Cornetta to clean up his act.

When Cornetta didn't respond, the city took him before Glanville (actually, Cornetta was in Mexico at the time), and Glanville issued a stern warning.

Now, the Love Shack has applied for a regular business license.

"The city perspective is that as long as the business is operating in an appropriate manner and is not triggering an S.O.B. [sexually oriented business], he'll be issued a license," Mayor Mike Bodker said. "His apparent cleaning up of the store is a victory in that we were able to create constitutionally sound law and uphold it."

But, Cornetta says, the Love Shack is still open, still selling adult material, and he's still fighting.

Cornetta has a reason for staying there, even as the owner of a conventional, if risque, shop; he has various court challenges that he believes could void Glanville's ruling or the city's ordinance. If Cornetta's appeals succeed, then he can become an adult store again in a prime location in the heart of Johns Creek.

"It's not a matter of if, but when, the ordinance falls," Cornetta said. "With no ordinance on the books, I win. Then I'm full adult, and I do what I want."