NORTHEAST FULTON COUNTY, GA – Johns Creek, the city that’s not yet a city, is already lining up for its first legal battle; a fight to prevent the Love Shack, an adult shop and tobacconist, from opening its doors at the corner of Jones Bridge and State Bridge roads.At a public meeting held last Thursday at Chattahoochee High School, residents and public officials of the soon-to-be city gathered to discuss what the community should do if John Cornetta, the owner of the Love Shack, forges ahead with his plan to open a 10,000 square foot store in the town.
Cornetta previously filed suit against Fulton County in federal court after the County denied him a business license for the Johns Creek site.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, at the meeting last week, Cornetta argued that the city should issue him a regular business license, because the store will open with less than 25-percent of its merchandise being product that qualifies as adult material.
Under Georgia law, if adult merchandise comprises more than 25-percent of a store’s merchandise, that store is automatically considered an adult business, which means that certain zoning laws and other regulatory measures apply.
Fulton County officials argue that the Love Shack is an adult business, regardless of how much of its merchandise is considered adult, and that Cornetta accordingly needs to be licensed appropriately or choose a new location.
Regardless of whether Cornetta has the legal right to open his business in Johns Creek, officials at both the local and state levels have made it clear they intend to fight tooth and nail to prevent him from doing so.
The Journal-Constitutionreports that Fulton County senior attorney Steve Rosenberg received a long round of applause at the meeting, an event attended by approximately 900 people, when he said “We plan to fight the lawsuit. We plan to keep the Love Shack shut down in Johns Creek.”
Mayor-designate of Johns Creek, Mike Bodker, declared the city ready to deal with any number of contingencies and said among the first acts of the Johns Creek City Council when it convenes December 1st will be to pass a series of adult entertainment ordinances.
“If they open, we’re prepared,” Bodker said at Thursday’s meeting, according to the Journal-Constitution. “If they don’t open, we’re prepared. We’re prepared to regulate adult businesses in Johns Creek.”
Johns Creek, a community that officially becomes a city on December 1st of this year, was created by House Bill 1321, which was signed by Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue in late March. Faced with the massive “to-do list” that any newly incorporated city must confront, some critics wondered if the new city’s priorities are misaligned.
“If they don’t have other ideas about what’s good for cities, then they ought not be elected,” said Love Shack’s Atlanta-based attorney Alan Begner, according to WXIA-TV.
Bodker countered that businesses like Love Shack “tend to attract other elements of crime into an immediate area that are just not desirable by other elements of the community,” according to WXIA-TV.
Johns Creek native and Georgia House Speaker pro-tem Mark Burkhalter expressed his determination to prevent businesses like Love Shack from operating, not just in Johns Creek, but anywhere in Georgia.
“We intend to put them out of business if we can,” said Burkhalter, according to Atlanta’s WXIA-TV Channel 11.
Burkhalter added that he is in the process of drafting a new state obscenity law, to replace one invalidated by the Eleventh US Circuit Court of Appeals in February.
Burkhalter correctly asserted that there’s a “difference in the law between adult materials and obscene materials,” and maintained that all he and other officials are doing is “trying to stop these obscene materials.”
Begner contends that his clients don’t sell things that qualify as obscene, and that he hoped Burkhalter didn’t intend to indicate that sex toys and other novelties sold at Love Shack are legally obscene.
“My goodness, to make them contraband is bizarre indeed, in this day and time,” Begner said, adding “I hope that the state will look at that.”
