Several Myrtle Beach business owners are asking for a temporary restraining order for the city’s CBD ordinance.
The business owners are suing the city over the city’s ordinance banning items like CBD products, e-cigs, and edibles in the Entertainment Overlay District, according to the court document filed on December 31. Those who brought the suit say the ordinance violates their constitutional rights and is an abuse of government power.
“This motion challenges the constitutionality of recently enacted Ordinance 2017- 23, entitled the ‘Ocean Boulevard Entertainment Overlay District,'” says the document. “The Ordinance creates a zoning ‘overlay district’ which bans the sale of certain specified products, prohibits certain expressive conduct and messaging, and imposes anti-free speech zones in an arbitrarily drawn area of the City, roughly along Ocean Boulevard between Sixth Avenue South and Sixteenth Avenue North in the City of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.”
“The Ordinance, as written, abuses governmental power, denies free speech in a traditional public forum, does not further any important or substantial government interest, and imposes restrictions that are greater than necessary to further any government interest asserted,” the document also says. “The Ordinance will prevent Plaintiffs from selling a significant portion of their merchandise inventory and will significantly curtail their businesses, or in some cases, will prohibit Plaintiffs’ businesses altogether.”
The full court document can be read here.
In December, several businesses along Ocean Boulevard filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court regarding the ordinance.
The ordinance banning the sale of the items on certain parts of Ocean Boulevard was passed by city council in August and took effect on Tuesday.
