SANTA FE SPRINGS, CA – As a Los Angeles Superior Court judge postponed a hearing this week on the city’s lawsuit against a strip club, city officials continued to insist the business is out of compliance with zoning laws.

Paul Ashworth, Santa Fe Springs’ assistant director of planning and development, said the owner of Spicy’s Gentleman’s Club on Slauson Avenue could have picked from among 12 locations in the city where adult businesses are permitted.

“The owner is in defiance of our zoning laws by operating an adult oriented business in the zone it is located,” he said, adding that owner Edwin Kwong misled the city last year when he requested a business license and characterized his establishment as a restaurant with “live entertainment.”

“He failed to mention the live entertainment would be totally nude dancers,” Ashworth said. “He is operating his business in defiance of the city’s ordinance.”

But Kwong’s attorney Roger Jon Diamond threw the charge back at city officials, saying the city misled his client.

“The issue is not whether \ misrepresented his business, but whether he had to do so to comply with an unconstitutional ordinance,” he said.

He questioned whether the city made available enough sites for adult businesses to open. By federal law, cities cannot use zoning laws to unreasonably prohibit adult-oriented businesses from opening within their borders.

In December, City Council members approved an ordinance that eliminated distance setback requirements aimed at keeping adult businesses from opening within 500 feet of any churches. Recent court rulings have struck down those distance requirements.

The new ordinance opened up 600,000 square feet within the city in which adult-oriented businesses can open, the city’s legal counsel has said.

Spicy’s Gentleman’s Club is near several industrial businesses.

Diamond said, if the judge rules in the city’s favor and upholds the new ordinance, his client could theoretically “move next to a church.”

Ashworth said Spicy’s could open on Norwalk Boulevard, which has an adult-business zone. He said the Holiday strip club has operated on Norwalk since the mid-1980s.

City officials served two cease and desist orders against Spicy’s, which Kwong ignored, forcing Santa Fe Springs to sue, Ashworth added.

The next court date on the lawsuit was set for June 29.