(A) Development standards.
(1) Zoning compliance. The building in which an adult business is located must comply with all applicable setbacks and parking requirements of the applicable zoning district.
(2) Exterior lighting.
(a) All exterior areas, including parking lots, of the adult business must be illuminated at a minimum of 1.50 footcandle, maintained and evenly distributed at ground level with appropriate devices to screen, deflect or diffuse the lighting in such manner as to prevent glare or reflected light from creating adverse impacts on adjoining and nearby public and private properties.
(b) Inoperable or broken lights must be replaced within 24 hours.
(3) Sound. The premises within which the adult business is located must provide sufficient sound-absorbing insulation so that noise generated inside such premises will not be audible anywhere on any adjacent property or public right-of-way, or within any other building or other separate unit within the same building.
(4) No minors.
(a) The building entrance to an adult business must be clearly and legibly posted with a notice indicating that persons under 18 years of age are precluded from entering the premises.
(b) Such notice must be constructed and posted to the satisfaction of the Director.
(c) No person under the age of 18 years may be permitted within the premises at any time.
(5) Open indoor areas.
(a) All indoor areas within which patrons are permitted, except restrooms, must be open to view at all times.
(b) Adult booths and individual viewing areas are prohibited.
(6) Restrooms.
(a) Separate restroom facilities must be provided for male patrons and employees, and female patrons and employees.
(b) Male patrons and employees are prohibited from using any restroom for females, and female patrons and employees are prohibited from using any restroom for males, except to carry out duties of repair, maintenance and cleaning of the restroom facilities.
(c) The restrooms must be free from any sexually oriented material.
(d) Restrooms may not contain television monitors or other motion picture or video projection, recording or reproduction equipment.
(e) This division does not apply to an adult business that deals exclusively with the sale or rental of sexually oriented material that is not used or viewed on the premises, such as an adult store or adult video store, and does not provide restroom facilities to its patrons or the general public.
(7) Residential conversions prohibited. No residential structure may be converted for use as an adult business.
(8) Portable structures prohibited. No adult business may be located in any temporary or portable structure.
(B) Operational standards.
(1) Hours. No adult business may operate or be open for business between the hours of midnight to 10:00 a.m.
(2) Employment of minors prohibited. No owner or operator of any adult business may employ or permit to be employed any person who is not at least 18 years of age.
(3) Presence of minors on premises prohibited.
(a) No owner or operator of an adult business may allow or permit any person under the age of 18 years to enter, be or remain in any such business.
(b) Operators must determine the age of persons who enter the premises by posting an employee at the entrance to check the driver's license or other authorized identification of each person entering the premises.
(4) Screening of interior of premises and display of sexually oriented materials or adult live entertainment.
(a) No adult business may be operated in any manner that permits the observation of any material or activities depicting, describing or relating to specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas, or adult live entertainment, from any public way or from any location outside the building or area of such establishment.
(b) This provision applies to any display, decoration, sign, show window or other opening.
(c) No exterior door or window on the premises may be propped or kept open at any time while the business is open, and any exterior windows must be covered with opaque covering at all times or otherwise screened to prevent a view of the interior in a manner approved by the Director.
(5) Alcoholic beverages prohibited. No alcoholic beverages may be served, consumed or sold on the premises of an adult business.
(6) Illumination. All areas of the adult business must be illuminated at a minimum of the following footcandles, minimally maintained and evenly distributed at ground level:
Area | Footcandles |
stores and other retail establishments | 20 |
theaters and cabarets | 5 (except during performances, at which time lighting must be at least 1.25 footcandles) |
arcades | 10 |
modeling studios | 20 |
(7) Security measures.
(a) On-site manager required.
1. All adult businesses must have a responsible person who is over the age of 18 and is on the premises to act as manager at all times the business is open, and shall be given by the owner or operator the responsibility and duty to address and
immediately resolve all violations of law taking place on the premises.
2. No performer may serve as an on-site manager.
3. If the on-site manager is not an owner, then the owners must provide the Director with the individual background information set forth in divisions (1) to (9) of § 5.50.040(A) for such on-site manager, and receive approval for each such on-site manager, utilizing the application process under § 5.50.050, prior to such individual commencing any managerial duties at the premises.
(b) Security guards required. Adult businesses must employ state-licensed, uniformed security guards in order to maintain the public peace and safety, based upon the following standards:
1. Adult businesses featuring adult live entertainment and performers must provide at least one security guard at all times while the business is open. If the occupancy limit of the premises is greater than 35 persons, an additional security guard must be on duty.
2. Security guards for other adult businesses may be required if it is determined by the Police Chief that their presence is necessary in order to prevent any of the conduct prohibited in this chapter from occurring on the premises.
(c) Duties and qualifications of security guards.
1. Security guards have a duty to prevent violations of law and enforce compliance by patrons with the requirements of this chapter.
2. Security guards must be uniformed in such a manner so as to be readily identifiable as a security guard by the public, and must be duly licensed as a security guard as required under state law.
3. No security guard required under this section may act as a door person, ticket seller, ticket taker, admittance person, performer or on-site manager while acting as a security guard.
(d) Illumination requirements for off-street parking areas and building entries.
1. All off-street parking areas and building entries serving an adult business featuring adult live entertainment must be illuminated during all hours of operation, with a lighting system designed to provide at least an average maintained, horizontal illumination of 1.5 footcandle of light on the parking surface and walkway.
2. This required lighting level is established in order to provide sufficient illumination of the parking areas and walkways serving the adult business, for the personal safety of patrons and employees, and to reduce the incidence of vandalism and theft.
3. The lighting must be shown on the required site or plot plan.
4. The required lighting must remain on for at least 30 minutes after the closing time of the adult business to promote safety for its employees.
(e) Security system for off-street parking areas. All off-street parking areas serving an adult business featuring adult live entertainment must have a security system that visually records and retains images of the entire parking area for at least a 72-hour period, for the purposes of promoting safety and identifying illegal activity.
(8) [Reserved].
(9) Adult live entertainment; additional operating regulations. The following additional requirements apply to adult businesses providing adult live entertainment:
(a) No person may perform adult live entertainment for patrons of an adult business except upon a permanently fixed stage, at least 18 inches above the level of the floor, and surrounded by a three-foot-high barrier or by a fixed rail at least 30 inches in height.
1. A distance of at least six feet, measured horizontally, must be maintained between patrons and performers at all times during a performance.
2. No patron may be permitted on the stage while the stage is occupied by a performer. This provision does not apply to an individual viewing area, where the performer is completely separated from the area in which an individual views the performer by a permanent, floor-to-ceiling, solid barrier.
(b) No performer may have physical contact with any patron, and no patron may have physical contact with any performer, while the performer is performing on the premises.
1. This prohibition does not extend to incidental touching.
2. Patrons must be advised of the no touching requirements by signs conspicuously displayed and placed on the barrier between patrons and performers, and utilizing red or black printing of letters not less than one inch in size.
3. If necessary, patrons must also be advised of the no touching requirements by employees or independent contractors of the establishment.
(c) While on or about the premises, all employees and independent contractors of the adult business, including performers, must wear, at a minimum, an opaque covering that covers their specified anatomical areas.
(d) If patrons wish to pay or tip performers, payment or tips may be placed in containers placed at least six feet from the stage used by the performers.
1. Patrons may not throw money to performers, place monies in the performers’ costumes, or otherwise place or throw monies on the stage.
2. Patrons must be advised of this requirement by signs conspicuously displayed and placed on the barrier between patrons and performers, and utilizing red or black printing of letters not less than one inch in size.
(e) The adult business must provide dressing rooms for performers, which are separated by gender and exclusively dedicated to the performers' use, and which the performers must use.
1. Same gender performers may share a dressing room.
2. Patrons are not permitted in dressing rooms.
(f) The adult business must provide an entrance/exit to the establishment for performers that is separate from the entrance/exit used by patrons, and the performers must use this entrance/exit at all times.
(g) The adult business must provide access for performers between the stage and the dressing rooms that is completely separated from the patrons.
1. If such separate access is not physically feasible, the adult business must provide a minimum-three-foot-wide walk aisle for performers between the dressing room area and the stage, with a railing, fence or other barrier separating the patrons and the performers capable of (and that actually results in) preventing any physical contact between patrons and performers.
2. The patrons must remain at least three feet away from the walk aisle.
3. Nothing in this section is intended to exempt the adult business from compliance with the provisions of Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations pertaining to handicapped accessibility.
(10) Adult theater; additional operating requirements. The following additional requirements apply to adult theaters.
(a) If the theater contains a hall or auditorium area, the area must comply with each of the following provisions:
1. Have individual, separate seats, not couches, benches, or the like, to accommodate the maximum number of persons who may occupy the hall or auditorium area;
2. Have a continuous main aisle alongside the seating areas so that each person seated in the hall or auditorium area is visible from the aisle at all times;
3. Have a sign posted in a conspicuous place at or near each entrance to the hall or auditorium area, listing the maximum number of persons who may occupy the hall or auditorium area, which number may not exceed the number of seats within the hall or auditorium area.
(11) No owner, operator or on-site manager of any adult business may have pled guilty, nolo contendere or been convicted within the past three years of any of the following offenses, or convicted of an offense outside the state of California that would have constituted any of the following offenses if committed within the state of California: Cal. Penal Code §§ 243.4, 261, 266a through 266j, inclusive, 267, 314, 315, 316, 318; or Cal. Penal Code § 647a, b and d; any offense requiring registration under provisions of either Cal. Penal Code §290 or Cal. Health & Safety Code § 11590; or any felony offense involving the possession, possession for sale, sale, transportation, furnishing or giving away of a controlled substance specified in Cal. Health & Safety Code §§ 11054, 11055, 11056, 11057 or 11058, as those sections may hereafter be amended.
(12) No owner, operator, employee or performer of an adult business may personally solicit, or permit the personal solicitation of, motorists or pedestrians in the vicinity of the adult business.
(13) Every adult business must display, at all times during business hours, the permit issued pursuant to the provisions of this chapter for such adult business, in a conspicuous place so that the permit may be readily seen by all persons entering the adult business.
(14) No owner, operator or on-site manager may permit any person on the premises of the adult business to engage in, nor may any performer perform at such premises, a live showing of any of the following: (a) the human male or female genitals, pubic area, or buttocks with less than a fully opaque covering, (b) the female breasts with less than a fully opaque covering over any part of the nipple or areola; or (c) covered male genitals in a discernibly turgid state. This provision may not be complied with by applying an opaque covering simulating the appearance of the specific anatomical part required to be covered.
(15) No performer may be employed, hired, engaged or otherwise retained by an adult business to participate in or give any live performance without first having a valid adult business performer license issued by the city.
(Ord. 4496, passed 5-29-07)