GARDEN GROVE : Adult Bookstore Loses Bid for Nude Juice Bar

A state appeals court has upheld the city’s refusal to let the owner of an adult bookstore operate a juice bar that features nude dancers.

In a decision released Monday, the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana said that the proposed juice bar in the 8100 block of Garden Grove Boulevard would violate city zoning laws and create parking problems.

But the court allowed Waldon Randall Welty to operate A-Z Bookstore and a “peep show” arcade at longer hours than currently allowed.

The bookstore and the arcade now may open from 8:30 a.m. to midnight on weekdays and from 8:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. on weekends, instead of closing at 10 p.m. on weekdays and at midnight on weekends.

City officials have applauded the court ruling.

“We’re very pleased,” Mayor Frank Kessler said. “We had attempted to follow the law,” and this proves that what we have done was exactly that.”

Welty applied for a permit to convert his one-story building into a two-story juice bar with nude, female dancers.

The City Council rejected the proposal two years ago, and a Superior Court upheld the action. The court also imposed the limited business hours for the arcade.

The appeals court ruled Monday that it was an “abuse of discretion” for the Superior Court to impose lesser business hours than the city had allowed under a “late-night” permit granted in 1991.

Welty’s lawyer, Roger Jon Diamond of Upland, was not available Tuesday.