The Kannapolis City Council’s unanimous decision Monday night allows adult businesses to apply to operate near Wal-Mart at the north end of the city, near the cloverleaf intersection at Interstate 85 at the south end of the city and along two other sections of Cannon Boulevard.

Such businesses must operate more than 100 feet from the property lines of churches, parks, day-care centers, schools, residential property or businesses that sell alcohol. That’s much shorter than the 2,000-foot minimum the original ordinance passed in February 1994 allowed.

Adult businesses can operate between 8 a.m. and midnight, Monday through Saturday.

Kannapolis Mayor Ray Moss, a retired minister, said the city had no choice but to allow more places for adult businesses. “It is objectionable to me,” he said, “and probably to a majority of residents in Kannapolis.”

Kannapolis officials first set restrictions in February 1994 on where businesses that peddle pornographic materials and nudity could locate. They also gave the city’s three adult businesses five years to comply.

Since then, two of the businesses closed. But earlier this year, the owner of L&J Adult Newsstand at 1201 N. Cannon Blvd. sued the city. The complaint, filed by business owner Jeffery Frye in U.S. District Court in Greensboro, says that the city’s 1994 ordinance eliminated almost any viable site for him to relocate.

Monday night, Kannapolis officials removed the part of the ordinance requiring L&J Adult Newsstand to come into compliance, allowing the store — which never had closed — to operate legally.

Roddey M. Ligon Jr., an attorney for the city in Winston-Salem, said judges have ruled in other federal cases that the First Amendment requires cities to provide adequate space for adult businesses.

“(The changes) caused the ordinance to be one that will not allow an adult-oriented business anywhere in the city,” Ligon said. “ ... There is no way, unfortunately, that the city can prevail in the lawsuit ... The ordinance will not stand muster.”

Neither Frye nor his Statesville attorney, Bill McMillan, could be reached Monday or Tuesday morning.

At least three residents from the recently annexed Coddle Creek area said they were pleased at the decision by city officials to keep adult businesses from locating there. Last month, city planner Michael Legg had recommended restricting adult businesses to 430 acres in Coddle Creek.

Councilman Roger Haas, a retired executive for U.S. Tobacco, was frustrated the city can’t be more stringent.