In contrast to the City of Camarillo, which has received enough adult-film permit requests to prompt an emergency moratorium last week, the City of Long Beach’s Department of Special Events and Filming say they have yet to log one application for a pornographic production since the County’s forced-condom law was voted in last November.
“[Our office] permits all public and private places for filming in the City of Long Beach,” explained Jacque Sweeting, an analyst for Special Events and Filming. “Not one application has come through recently for any adult filming.”
It was discovered shortly after the election that The Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Initiative, commonly known as Measure B, does not apply to cities that operate their own health department. Of the County’s 88 cities, only three fall under that umbrella: Pasadena, Vernon and Long Beach.
And even though there was some debate among city and county officials over whether or not the measure would be similarly enforced in these areas (it was voted on and passed by residents in all three cities), it seems that adult film producers seeking to circumvent the law have instead swarmed on Camarillo, a city of 65,000 in Ventura County.
{loadposition latestnews}Camarillo’s Assistant City Atty. Don Davis told the L.A. Times that the city received several calls last week inquiring about temporary filming permits and asking if the city had a condom ordinance. One property owner said he was approached about leasing space for an adult film studio.
“What we think may be happening is maybe as a result of safe-sex and adult-film ordinances in L.A. County and the city of L.A., some of the productions are perhaps looking for new film territory, and we’re not that far away,” Davis told the Times.
Unsure of what to do, the City passed an emergency 45-day moratorium on adult film production in the city so that officials can discuss what to do about the requests moving forward. Many in the porn industry had opposed Measure B last year and threatened to move their studios and productions outside the County Health Department’s jurisdiction if it passed.
So far, Long Beach has avoided hosting that backlash. Only one adult production permit has come through the filming department in the last five years and it was well before the passage of Measure B. That’s not to say that adult films could not begin to be made in Long Beach, a city that currently serves as the backdrop for CSI: Miami, Dexter, Arrested Development and countless national commercials.
“We can’t deny a permit based on content. That’s our policy,” explains Sweeting. “As long as they get the signatures and go through the entire applicatiom process, it’s all looked blindly.”
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