[Amended 5-28-2003]
A.
The intent of this article is to regulate adult-oriented
establishments which, because of their very nature, are recognized
as having serious objectionable characteristics, particularly when
several of them are concentrated under certain circumstances, thereby
having a deleterious effect upon the adjacent areas. Special regulation
of these uses is necessary to ensure that these adverse effects will
not contribute to the blighting or downgrading of the surrounding
neighborhood. The primary control or regulation is for the purpose
of preventing a concentration of these uses in any one area as well
as the health, safety and welfare of the citizens of Orange. The regulations
are, therefore, adopted to protect retail trade, prevent crime, maintain
property values, preserve the quality of neighborhood property and
life, address related concerns with littering, parking, traffic, and
public indecency, to maintain the interest of persons in their property
in a state of good repair, and to spend, patronize and trade in their
community.
B.
Statistics and studies performed by a substantial
number of cities and towns in the United States indicate that:
(1)
Large numbers of persons frequent such adult-oriented
establishments, especially those which provide closed booths, cubicles,
studios and rooms for the private viewing of so called adult motion
pictures and/or videotapes and/or live entertainment; and
(2)
Such closed booths, cubicles, studios and rooms have
been used by patrons, clients or customers of such adult-oriented
establishments for the purpose of engaging in specified sexual activities;
and
(3)
Male and female prostitutes have been known to frequent
such. establishments in order to provide sex for hire to the patrons,
clients or customers of such establishments within such booths, cubicles,
studios and rooms; and
(4)
Doors, curtains, blinds and/or other closures installed
or on the entrances and/or exits of such booths, cubicles, studios
and rooms which are closed while such booths, cubicles, studios and
rooms are in use, encourage patrons, clients or customers using such
booths, cubicles, studios and rooms to engage in specified sexual
activities therein with prostitutes and/or with other persons and/or
by themselves, thereby promoting or encouraging prostitution and the
commission of specified sexual activities which cause blood, semen,
urine or other bodily secretion to be deposited on the floors and/or
walls of such booths, cubicles, studios and rooms which deposits could
prove detrimental to the health and safety of other persons who may
come into contact with such deposits; and
(5)
Booths, cubicles, studios and rooms which are closed
while such booths, cubicles, studios and rooms are in use often contain
holes that have been cut or smashed out of the walls or other partitioning
material. These holes permit the inhabitant of one booth to engage
in specified sexual activities with the inhabitant of an adjoining
booth, cubicle, studio or room. These promote and encourage specified
sexual acts to occur between persons anonymously. Anonymous sexual
contact poses a higher risk of spread of communicable diseases including
the AIDS virus and Hepatitis B and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Further, the existence of such holes in booths, cubicles, studios
and rooms in an adult-oriented establishment provides an increased
risk that blood, semen, urine and other bodily secretions will be
deposited on the floors and/or walls of such booths, cubicles, studios
and rooms, which deposits could prove detrimental to the health and
safety of other persons who may come into contact with such deposits;
and
(6)
Specified sexual activities often occur at unregulated
adult-oriented establishments which provide live adult entertainment,
specified sexual activities, including sexual physical contact between
employees and patrons, clients or customers of adult-oriented establishments,
and specifically include lap dancing and/or manual or oral touching
or fondling of specified anatomical areas whether clothed or unclothed.
Such casual, sexual physical contact between strangers may result
in the transmission of communicable diseases which would be detrimental
to the health of the patrons, clients or customers and employees of
such adult-oriented establishments; and
(7)
The unregulated operation of adult-oriented establishments
is associated with an increase in the incidents of sex-related crimes
and also has a disruptive effect on the surrounding neighborhood by
causing excessive noise, parking problems, the presence of discarded
sexually oriented material on residential lawns, and the performance
of sexual acts in public places; and
(8)
The reasonable regulation and supervision of such
adult-oriented establishments tends to discourage prostitution, other
sex-related crimes, anonymous high-risk sexual contact and/or high-risk
unsanitary sexual activity, excessive noise and property devaluation,
thereby decreasing the incidents of communicable diseases and sex-related
crimes and thereby promoting and protecting the health, safety and
welfare of the employees and the public who patronize such establishments
and protecting the health, safety, and property interests of the Town
and its citizens.
C.
The continued unregulated operation of adult-oriented
establishments is and would be detrimental to the general welfare,
health and safety of the citizens of Orange. The Constitution and
the laws of the State of Connecticut grant to the Town powers, especially
police power, to enact reasonable legislation and measures to regulate
and supervise adult-oriented establishments in order to protect the
public health, safety and welfare.
D.
It is not the intent of the Orange Plan and Zoning
Commission to deny any person rights to speech protected by the United
States and/or State Constitutions, to impose any limitations or restrictions
on the content of any communicative materials, including sexually-oriented
films, videotapes, books and/or other materials, nor to deny or restrict
the rights of any adult to obtain or view any sexually oriented materials
protected by the United States and/or State Constitution or to restrict
or deny any Constitutionally protected rights that distributors or
exhibitors of such sexually oriented materials may have to sell, distribute
or exhibit such materials.
For the purpose of this article, the following
words and phrases shall mean:
Any amusement machine that is regularly used for presenting
material distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on matter depicting,
describing or relating to specified sexual activities and specified
anatomical areas, as defined below, for observation by patrons therein.
An establishment having as a substantial or significant portion
of its stock-in-trade books, magazines, films for rent or sale or
for viewing on premises by uses of motion-picture devices or any coin-operated
means, and other periodicals which are distinguished or characterized
by their emphasis on matter depicting, describing or relating to specified
sexual activities or specified anatomical areas, or has facilities
for the presentation of adult entertainment.
Any exhibition of any adult-oriented motion pictures, live
performance, display or dance of any type which has as a significant
or substantial portion of such performance, any actual or simulated
performance of specified sexual activities or exhibition and viewing
of specified anatomical area, removal or articles of clothing or appearing
unclothed in a modeling or any other personal service offered customers.
It also includes any material distinguished or characterized by an
emphasis on matter depicting, describing or relating to specified
sexual activities or specified anatomical areas as defined herein
for observation by patrons, clients or customers thereof.
A public or private establishment which feature topless dancers,
strippers, male or female impersonators, or similar entertainers,
or acts relating to specified sexual activities or specified anatomical
areas, or otherwise providing adult entertainment, as herein defined,
for observation by patrons therein.
An enclosed building with a capacity for less than 50 persons
used for material having as a dominant theme material distinguished
or characterized by an emphasis on matter depicting, describing or
relating to specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas,
for observation by patrons therein.
Any place to which the public is permitted or invited wherein
coin- or slug-operated or electronically, electrically or mechanically
controlled still or motion-picture machines, projectors, or other
image-producing devices are maintained to show images to five or fewer
persons per machine at any one time, and where the images so displayed
are distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on depicting, describing
or relating to specified sexual activities or specified anatomical
areas.
An enclosed building with a capacity of 50 or more persons
used regularly and routinely for material having as a dominant theme
material distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on matter depicting,
describing or relating to specified sexual activities or specified
anatomical areas, for observation by patrons therein.
Includes, without limitation, a commercial establishment
containing one or more, without limitation, adult amusement machines,
adult bookstores, adult motion-picture theaters, adult mini-motion-picture
theaters, adult motion-picture arcades, adult retail establishments
and further means any premises to which the public, patrons, clients,
customers or members are invited or admitted and wherever an entertainer
provides adult entertainment, or which premises are so visibly arranged
as to provide booths, cubicles, rooms, studios, compartments or stalls,
separate from the common areas of the premises for the purpose of
viewing adult-oriented motion pictures or wherein an entertainer provides
adult entertainment when such adult entertainment is held, conducted,
operated or maintained for profit, direct or indirect or not for profit.
An adult-oriented establishment further includes without limitation
any adult entertainment studio or any premises that are physically
arranged and used as such whether advertised or represented as an
adult entertainment, rap studio, exotic dance studio and encounter
studio, sensitivity studio, massage studio, modeling studio or any
other term of like import.
A business which offers for sale or rent instruments, devices,
gifts or paraphernalia which are designed or marketed for use in connection
with specified sexual activities, clothing that graphically depicts
specified anatomical areas or any of the materials sold or rented
in an adult bookstore as defined above, if a substantial or significant
portion of such items is distinguished or characterized by its emphasis
on matter depicting, describing or relating to specified sexual activities
or specified anatomical areas. In determining whether an item is "designed
or marketed for use" in connection with specified sexual activities,
the following guidelines may be considered:
Expert testimony as to the principal use of
the item;
Evidence concerning the total business of a
person or business establishment and the type of merchandise involved
in the business;
National and local advertising concerning the
nature of the business establishment;
Evidence of advertising concerning the nature
of the business establishment;
Instructions, graphics or other material contained
on the item itself or on the packaging materials for the item;
The physical or structural characteristics of
the item;
The manner in which the item is displayed, including
its proximity to other regulated merchandise or signage relating to
items in a display area.
Any one of the following:
Human genitals in a state of sexual stimulation
or arousal;
Acts of human masturbation, sexual intercourse,
sodomy, bestiality, necrophilia, sadomasochistic abuse, fellatio or
cunnilingus;
Fondling or other erotic touching of human genitals,
pubic region, buttock or female breast;
Lap dancing.
However, the definition of "specified sexual
activity" shall not apply to any medical publications or films or
bona fide educational publication or films, any art or photography
publications which devote 25% of the lineage of each issue to articles
and advertisements dealing with subjects of art or photography; any
periodical which reports or describes current events and which from
time to time publishes photos of nude or semi-nude persons in connection
with the dissemination of the news, publications or films which describe
and report different cultures and which, from time to time, publish
or show photographs or depiction of nude or semi-nude persons when
describing cultures in which nudity or semi-nudity is indigenous to
the population.
A substantial or significant portion of a business is devoted
to the sale or rental of such items if it meets any one or more of
the following criteria:
Twenty percent or more of all inventory consists
of such items at anytime;
Twenty percent or more of the merchandise displayed
for sale consists of such items at any time;
Twenty percent or more of the stock-in-trade
consists of such items at any time;
Twenty percent or more of the floor area of
the business (not including storerooms, stock areas, bathrooms, basements
or any portion of the business not open to the public) is devoted
to such items at any time.
Twenty percent or more of the sales, measured
in dollars over any consecutive ninety-day period, is derived from
such items;
Twenty percent or more of the number of sales
transactions, measured over any consecutive ninety-day period, is
of such items;
Twenty percent or more of the dollar value of
all merchandise displayed at any time is attributable to such items.
B.
Adult uses shall be permitted subject to the following
restrictions:
(1)
No such adult use shall be allowed within 1,500 feet
of another existing adult use. The 1,500 feet shall be the straight
horizontal distance from any portion of a building housing an adult
use, to any part of the other building housing adult use as measured
by the Orange Town Engineer.
(2)
No such adult use shall be located within 400 feet
of any zoning district which is zoned for residential use. The 400
feet shall be the straight horizontal distance from any portion of
a building housing an adult use to any boundary of a zoning district
which is zoned for residential use, as measured by the Orange Town
Engineer.
(3)
No such adult use shall be located within 1,000 feet
of a preexisting school, day-care facility, recreational facility
for children, or place of worship. The 1,000 feet shall be the straight
horizontal distance, as measured by the Orange Town Engineer, from
any portion of a building housing an adult use to the property line
of a building housing a school, day-care facility, recreational facility
for children or place of worship.
No such adult use shall be located in arty zoning district except in the Commercial C-2 Zone by special permit in accordance with Article XIV.
A.
Every adult-oriented establishment shall be well-lighted
at all times and be physically arranged in such a manner that the
entire interior portion of any booths, cubicles, rooms or stalls,
where adult entertainment is provided, shall be clearly visible from
the common areas of the premises. Visibility into such booths, cubicles,
rooms, or stalls shall not be blocked or obscured by doors, curtains,
partitions, drapes, or any other obstruction whatsoever. There shall
be no areas to secluded viewing of adult-oriented motion pictures
or any other types of adult entertainment.
B.
Any room or other area used for the purpose of viewing
adult entertainment shall be well-lighted and readily accessible at
all times and shall-be continuously open to view in its entirety.
The premises shall be equipped with overhead lighting fixtures of
sufficient intensity to illuminate every place to which patrons, clients
or customers are permitted access at the illumination of not less
than one footcandle as measured at the floor level.
No adult use shall be conducted in any manner
that permits the observation of any material depicting, describing
or relating to specified sexual activities or specified anatomical
areas from any public way or from any property not registered as an
adult use. This provision shall apply to any display, decoration,
sign, show window or other opening.
A.
The owner of a building or premises, his/her agent
for the purposes of managing, controlling, or collecting rents, or
any other person managing or controlling a building or premises, any
part of which contains an adult use, shall register with the Zoning
Enforcement Officer the following information:
(1)
The address of the premises.
(2)
The name of the owner of the premises and names of
the beneficial owners if the property is in a land trust
(3)
The address(es) of the owner and the beneficial owners.
(5)
The name(s) of the owner, beneficial owner of the major stock holders of the business or the establishment subject to the provisions of Subsection A(3).
(7)
The date of initiation of the adult use.
(8)
If the building or premises is leased, a copy of the
lease shall be attached.
B.
It shall be unlawful for the owner or person in control
of any property to establish or operate thereon or to permit any person
to establish or operate any adult use without first having properly
registered and received certification of approved registration; preexisting
adult uses prior to the effective date of this regulation shall register
within 10 days of the effective date of this regulation.
The provisions of these adult use regulations
are declared severable, to the maximum extent permitted by law. If
any provision or provisions of these establishment regulations or
the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid
or unlawful, it is the intent of the Commission that said invalidity
shall not affect other provisions or these regulations, which shall
remain in frill force and effect as if such portion so declared invalid
or unlawful were not originally part of these regulations, even if
the surviving parts of the Regulations result in greater restrictions
after any unlawful provisions are stricken.
