Residents hope for cool stuff next door

Thursday, Feb. 17, 2000 | 10:04 a.m.

Charleston Heights residents told the Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday they aren't looking for any hot stuff in their neighborhood.

Armed with a shopping bag filled with what they said was pornographic material picked up from sidewalks around the Hot Stuff video store on West Charleston Boulevard, they demanded the council close the business.

"It's unfair to put myself and the other parents in this area in the position to have to explain to our children what this stuff is," said Jessica Abe, parent of children aged 2 and 8, who lives 200 yards from the store.

The council agreed, and took an action it believes will help the city in its legal battle to close the store, which opened in March 1997 in an area zoned for commercial uses.

Sexually oriented businesses are not allowed in commercial zones.

On Wednesday, the council adopted a change in the city's municipal code to include a 30-day time limit for the city to decide the fate of a business license. The change also removes certain specific language that a federal appeals court ruled was too limiting in a First Amendment issue.

The city now hopes to take its amended code to the U.S. District Court to seek relief. The city wants the federal court to lift the injunction from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.