City now says Pandora’s Box violates zoning

A Wilmington adult entertainment store may have to close its doors. The city zoning board says Pandora’s Box is violation of its ordinances.

Despite the fact the business has been licensed and operating within city limits for four years, on Thursday, the assistant city attorney, and an attorney for the adult shop, presented their respective cases before the Board of Adjustment.

The city says an adult establishment isn’t zoned for the area of Oleander Driver where Pandora’s Box operates.

The store’s attorney argues that only a small percentage of the store’s merchandise falls within the “adult” category.

A nearly identical situation forced the owner of Intimate Bliss to close his store on Market Street in March.

He attended today’s hearing. “We were informed that we were fine. Other businesses were informed. And there’s a lot of money spent on our part when if the city is in error, well then they just walk away from it and say city officials can make errors. I’m sorry. In business people would be fired,” said Greg Sakas.

This wasn’t the first problem Greg Sakas ran into with a municipality. He recently won $175,000 in a lawsuit against the city of New Bern after the city was found guilty of wrongly confiscating adult videos from his store there.

The Wilmington Zoning Board’s hearing for Pandora’s Box was continued until June 30th.