Oceanside

Eager to crack down on peep show parlors, the City Council on Wednesday voted a prohibition on booths with doors and redefined peep show devices to include videotape machines.

The council’s 5-0 vote is in part a response to a recent decision by a Municipal Court judge that tossed out citations against a peep show establishment. In ruling for the Fun House II, Judge Victor Ramirez declared that the city’s ordinance did not cover the videotape machines the business used.

In addition, the city has had trouble enforcing a requirement that peep-show booths “allow the patron inside to have a constantly unobstructed view of the doorway to the establishment.” Some establishments found a way around that requirement by installing mirrors inside the booths, rather than removing the doors, as the ordinance intended.

The amendments approved Wednesday apply to the videotape machines used by the Fun House and state plainly that any partly or fully enclosed peep show booth is prohibited.