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Previously: Councilman Alex Wan proposed legislation earlier this year that would phase out all businesses along two sections of Cheshire Bridge Road that had been grandfathered in under a 2005 re-zoning project. Those businesses included adult entertainment clubs and shops, car washes, body shops and some restaurants. The original legislation gave the businesses two years to relocate, but was later amended to five years and to only include adult entertainment establishments.
The latest: The zoning committee approved the legislation Wednesday on a 3-2 vote with one abstention. Keisha Lance Bottoms and Carla Smith joined Wan in favoring the measure. Howard Shook and Ivory Lee Young, Jr. voted against it, and Joyce Sheperd abstained.
What's next: The full council is expected to take up the legislation at its Monday meeting.
The fight over Cheshire Bridge Road adult entertainment returns to Atlanta City Hall Monday, when councilmembers are expected to decide whether to force out the clubs and shops within five years.
No one says it’s about sex. Rather, in an election year the council finds itself in the middle of a battle pitting neighborhood planning concerns against property rights.
Opponents of Councilman Alex Wan’s proposal say his plan sets a dangerous precedent for those rights and tromps freedom of speech protections, while supporters say it tests the city’s commitment to communities.
The legislation would phase out a grandfather clause that has covered existing adult businesses in the Cheshire area since a 2005 rezoning project labeled such businesses "non-conforming."
If it passes the businesses would have to move by June 30, 2018, and they would not be compensated.
Wan said his goal is to help residents realize the vision laid out in a 1999 Cheshire Bridge Road study, which the city adopted.
“This isn’t my vision, this isn’t Alex Wan’s values,” said Wan, adding it’s the most significant legislation he has championed since taking office in 2009. “But I believe anytime the community goes to this much trouble and effort (we) should do everything we can to help them create that vision.”
The council’s zoning committee passed Wan’s plan last week by a 3-2 vote, with one abstention.
Residents say the clubs discourage economic development and bring criminal activity. Many blame the adult clubs for the area’s failure to improve the way Virginia-Highland and Little Five Points have.
Jane Rawlings, head of a neighborhood planning unit that includes Cheshire Bridge, said the area is plagued by crime, prostitution and decreasing property values for homes closest to the clubs.
“Unfortunately because of a small percentage of businesses on that street, we are often labeled the red light district for the City of Atlanta. That is not a destiny of our choosing,” said Rawlings, a resident of 15 years. “We feel communities should have the right to determine and shape their own destiny.”
But adult businesses, developers and real estate organizations say the Great Recession and Cheshire Bridge’s location are more to blame for lack of economic development. They point to a newly planned mixed-use development along Cheshire Bridge and Piedmont Road as a sign of improvement.
They say Wan’s proposal amounts to a taking of property, and vow to fight it in court if it passes.
Federal and state laws, commonly referred to as “takings laws, ” protect businesses from government decisions that effectively ban a legal business. Additionally, sexually oriented businesses nationwide have a long history of using constitutional free speech and free expression protections to fend off attacks.
Prominent Atlanta developer Scott Selig has joined the fight against the legislation. He is among those who worry that the ordinance could give city officials the right to take away a grandfathered status for other types of businesses, too.
“Who is to say that six months from now, in another part of town, people won’t say … ‘You did it there, how come we can’t do it here?’” said Selig, whose company owns such Atlanta landmarks as The Collonade restaurant and who developed the Plaza Midtown, located downtown next to adult club The Cheetah. “If this thing goes through, do you think I’d buy another piece of property that has a grandfathered use on it? I wouldn’t do it.”
Wan dismissed fears of a precedent. Nor, he said, is the city on a crusade against adult entertainment clubs, which have for decades been a tourism tool to attract conventioneers. Still, his legislation initially called for body shops and car washes to be phased out as well, but it was later changed to solely target adult clubs and stores.
Dozens of adult club employees crowded into City Hall last week for the committee hearing.
“For me, this is my livelihood. Employees here have kids and families,” said Jessy Fisher, who works at Onyx. “They’re not pointing at other clubs right now.”
Another employee, who identified herself as Sabrena Swinger, said it’s not easy to find other club jobs.
“You are putting people out of work, but saying you aren’t,” she said.
Taylor Alexander, an activist with the grassroots group Queer Up! Atlanta, said the legislation is an attempt to bring “gentrification instead of cultivation.”
He said phasing out adult businesses would take jobs from many in the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community who will struggle to find similar employment. He also takes issue with residents trying to change a district that has long been known for these establishments.
“It’s dumbfounding to me that people would want to change it when they knew what they were getting when they moved into it,” he said.
But Courtney Harkness, a Morningside resident of seven years who backs Wan’s legislation, said many outsiders “have a false impression that the adult businesses are harmless.”
“After moving to Morningside, we realized that’s not the case,” she said. “We lived here six months and there was a shooting in parking lot (of a nearby club).”
Harkness said she and her husband live intown because they want to raise their children in a diverse area. “But I don’t think because we want to live intown that we should put up with an unsafe and blighted area, which is what it has become.”
Morningside resident Patricia Coe is torn. Initially, she supported Wan’s legislation. She loves the grit of intown living and relishes its diversity, but says Cheshire Bridge fails on multiple fronts with its lagging economic development and heavy congestion.
She wants Cheshire Bridge to reach its potential, she said, but not at the expense of its character.
“If I have to choose between pole dancers or strip malls and a bunch of national retailers,” she said, “I’d go for pole dancers.”
Yet, as a regular customer of New Baby Products, a family-oriented shop across from an adult video store, she worries about the awkward moments when Cheshire’s “charm” bumps up against the facts of life.
“I’m hoping my daughter doesn’t ask me what Southern Nights Video is and if we can go in to rent ‘Finding Nemo,’” she joked. “Because no, we cannot.”
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