Right before Cobb County government shut down operations due to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, the county’s community development office issued a business license to a company saying it wanted to open up a clothing store in a former mattress store building on Johnson Ferry Road.
On March 11, 1290 Clothing Co. LLC got approval to add to the retail market of East Cobb’s busiest commercial thoroughfare.
Except it turned out not to be a pure-play clothing store.
When the store opened in June, the pink and light blue signage was for a Tokyo Valentino location, the latest in a string of metro Atlanta adult retail stores owned by Michael Morrison, whose legal battles with local jurisdictions go back more than 20 years.
Since no rezoning was required, however, Cobb Commissioner Bob Ott said at the time that the county could take no action.
When East Cobb News first reported in late May that 1290 Clothing Co. might be a Tokyo Valentino store instead, Morrison denied that.
By late October, as the Cobb Board of Commissioners voted to revoke the store’s business license on grounds of misrepresentation, Morrison’s attorney said during a contentious due-cause hearing that he would “would hate to see a county revoke a business license because some people—a small majority—don’t like it.”
While there were plenty of East Cobb residents who publicly opposed a sex shop in their community, many others were not, suggesting a live-and-let-live approach.
Ott, who’s retiring at the end of the year, defended the county’s action to shut down Tokyo Valentino—which had a store in the city of Marietta closed this summer on similar grounds—and to overhaul the county’s adult business ordinance.
In both instances, Cobb hired Scott Bergtold of Chattanooga, a lawyer who’s helped other metro Atlanta jurisdictions shape legislative and legal measures against Morrison’s businesses.
Ott sponsored a package of code amendment changes that could be seen as being designed to put one business out of business.
On Nov. 29, the county filed formal papers in Cobb Superior Court seeking revocation of Tokyo Valentino’s business license; you can read the complaint here.
Tokyo Valentino has not yet responded, and the store remains open pending a likely appeal.
“The question is, how was the business opened?” Ott said in a recent interview. “The court case is not about the sex shop. It’s about the validity of the business license.”
Related stories
- Cobb commissioners revoke Tokyo Valentino business license
- Cobb requests revocation of Tokyo Valentino business license
- Proposed Cobb code changes target sexually oriented businesses
- Editor’s Note: Is East Cobb really so uptight about a sex shop?
- East Cobb citizens speak out against new Johnson Ferry Road store
- Empty East Cobb retail building subject of sex shop concerns
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
