West Virginia daily

One Of The Tri-Cities Considering Adult Use Ordinance Nate Morabito News Channel 11 Apr 25, 10:48 PM EDT

Despite one city's wishes, an adult bookstore is open and operating.

Tomorrow night, Bristol, Virginia city council members will vote on a plan that would keep adult businesses from opening in some sections of the city.

But this proposed ordinance may be too little, too late.

Exotic Illusions is one of Bristol, Virginia's newest tenants, but people who live and work near this adult bookstore aren't exactly thrilled with their new neighbor.

"I think it's just too close to home," Valdez said.

The business is located on West State Street, across the road from Bill Goforth's religious bookstore.

"I think there is no real good in a business like that," Goforth said.

Behind the adult bookstore, there's a neighborhood.

When the city found out this business was thinking about setting up shop here, leaders scrambled to put together an ordinance to stop it from happening.

It reads "an emergency is declared and this ordinance shall become effective on first reading and adoption."

The ordinance would keep adult oriented businesses from opening within 500 feet of residential zones, schools, and places of worship.

Here's the city's problem, the earliest leaders can adopt this ordinance is Tuesday night, more than four days after the opening of Exotic Illusions.

"This ordinance should have been in place a lot sooner than now," Valdez added.

Although there is significant opposition to this kind of adult establishment, to be fair, not everyone is against it.

Otherwise, these kinds of businesses would not stay open.

Other cities in the region have already taken steps to prevent this kind of problem.

Johnson City, Kingsport, and Bristol, Tennessee, all have similar ordinances and in most cases, those ordinances have prevented new adult business from moving into town.

Exotic Illusions' owner says even if this proposed ordinance is passed tomorrow, his business will still legally be able to remain open.

This is cache, read story here