Intimate-apparel shop withdraws permit bid

9/12/2009

A company with plans to open an adult intimate-apparel shop on Oakmead Drive in Perrysburg Township apparently has changed its mind.

Perry Retail Associates LLC, which was denied a zoning certificate for an Adam & Eve store at a shopping plaza at U.S. 20 and Oakmead, withdrew its appeal and removed its application earlier this week.

Township Zoning Administrator Grant Garn denied the zoning application in June because the location was zoned for community business and was within 500 feet of a residential area. Sexually oriented businesses, he said, only are permitted in township in areas zoned I-2 or general industrial.

Daniel LaValley, attorney for applicant Bruce Kearns and Perry Retail Associates, contended in his brief withdrawing the appeal that the store did not meet the definition of a sexually oriented business.

"Eighty percent of applicant's floor space is devoted to soft goods such as lingerie, dance wear, hosiery, shoes, boots and sexual health items such as lotions, condoms, and lubricants. None of these items are sexually oriented materials," he wrote. "Applicant's separate room for display of its sexually oriented materials is 20 percent of the gross floor area of the proposed establishment."

Township Law Director Walt Celley disagreed but said the point is now moot.

Mr. Garn said it appeared to him that "the zoning worked. It did what it was intended to do, and there are other areas in the township that they can locate."