Strip Club Denied Permit in 2004 Gets OK to Operate
VISALIA, Calif. — Sugar Daddy's Gentleman's Club was granted a special-use permit by the Tulare County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday when supervisors overturned a decision made in 2004 by the county's Planning Commission that denied the adult-entertainment venue a permit.
The club has been open since 2002.
Questions still remain about how long the club will be allowed to stay open. The club must apply for an adult business license under county rules adopted in 2004, but it may have to close in 2011 because of a 2006 zoning law that approved live entertainment, but not live adult entertainment, in the area.
The attorney representing the club said he was pleased by the results of Tuesday's public hearing and was confident the remaining issues can be worked out with county officials.
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GEORGIA
County With No Adult Businesses Considers Rules to Regulate Them
MOULTRIE, Ga. — Although no entity has applied for a business license for an adult entertainment establishment in the county, the Colquitt County Board of Commissioners is considering a proposed ordinance that would allow adult entertainment but only in a couple of specific places. The proposal will be submitted to the Planning Commission later this month for approval before moving on to the County Commission.
“We can’t outlaw adult entertainment in Colquitt County, but we can restrict where they can be located,” county zoning officer John Peters said.
The county doesn’t allow alcohol sales.
The new draft requires adult businesses to be located 1,000 feet away from any zoned residential area, church, school, daycare, public park, library, playground, other already established adult business or establishment licensed to sell or serve alcohol.
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MARYLAND
Salisbury Limits Sex Shops to 8 % of City
SALISBURY, Md. — A new law will limit future adult businesses to two areas near existing industrial parks, locations that were identified after the city mapped each school, church and other place in the city's 7,665 acres deemed "sensitive" to the negative secondary effects of sexually explicit stores, which also must be 1,000 feet away from each other.
The City Council voted to temporarily ban adult shops for 100 days so the city could begin restricting their zoning.
"Constitutionally, we have to do what's right, but visually we have to be careful what's displayed and where," Council Vice President Gary Comegys said.
Only 613 acres, or 8 percent, of the city's land is available for adult shops under this model. Areas of zoning serving adult shops would be industrial parks, light industrial and light business industrial, according to the city-county Planning Office.
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MASSACHUSETTS
Bar Owner Delays Lawsuit, City May Change Zoning Law
WORCESTER, Mass. — A bar owner fighting the city for the right to feature strippers at his establishment has agreed in Worcester Superior Court to put his lawsuit against the city on hold while proposed changes to the city's adult entertainment zoning law are decided.
The city’s law regulating where new strip clubs and adult video stores can be located created a downtown adult entertainment district but added buffer zones that made the entire district off-limits to new strip clubs and adult video stores, according to the bar owner. Existing adult entertainment businesses were grandfathered into the 11-year-old law.
On Tuesday, the city solicitor conceded that the current ordinance was likely to be struck down as unconstitutional. The city administration proposed an 11th-hour overhaul of the regulation to carve out a few spots within the adult entertainment district where new adult entertainment businesses could be opened.
Although the lawsuit appears far from resolved, lawyers for the bar owner and the city agreed in court to put the legal dispute aside for now while the adult zoning law is in flux, and the judge agreed to shelve the case for the time being and told the bar owner's lawyers to contact the court clerk later if they feel the amended law still infringes on their client’s rights.
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OHIO
Miami Township Adjusts Adult Business Regulations
MIAMI TOWNSHIP, Ohio — With new developments spreading through Miami Township, officials approved an amendment to their zoning code affecting adult businesses. There are currently no adult businesses in the township.
The amendment changed the districts in which adult businesses could operate and the distance at which they can be from other establishments.
The new regulations decrease the required distance from businesses like schools, churches and parks from 1,000 to 750 feet. A city official said the distance had to decrease or else there would be no legal location within the township for adult businesses.
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ENGLAND
Norfolk Sex Shop Denied License
NORFOLK, England — A man's bid to expand his adult material importing and distribution business to a sex shop near a Norfolk village was denied by the Breckland Council Development Control Committee, even though the General Purposes Committee had previously agreed to grant a sex establishment license allowing business from 9:30 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.
Chris Bottrell of East Harling had hoped to open a shop called Lush XXX to sell sex products to walk-in customers and by Internet sales and mail order. Bottrell produced a petition signed by more than 120 villagers who all wanted the sex shop to open.
City Council members were concerned that the late opening hours would disturb villagers, but Bottrell explained some things cannot be sold wholesale over the Internet by law and instead must be sold personally.
Eight Council members voted for the proposal and four against, so planning permission was refused.
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