(A) Prohibition. It shall be unlawful for any person or group of persons, partnership, limited partnership or corporation or any other entity to operate or cause to be operated an adult entertainment business except as permitted herein.
(B) Intent. It is the intent of this section to regulate adult entertainment businesses, whether as a principal or as an accessory use, as a “special use.” The conditions noted hereinafter are the minimum required.
(C) Location.
(1) No more than one adult entertainment business shall be located on any one lot or parcel.
(2) Measurements of distance separation shall be in a straight line from the closest points of the buildings at which the adult uses are located.
(3) Adult entertainment businesses shall not be located closer than:
(a) Fifteen hundred feet from any residence or residential zoning district;
(b) Fifteen hundred feet from any church, child care center, public or private elementary or secondary educational school, college or institution of higher learning, public park, public library, cemetery or motion picture establishment which shows G- or PG-rated movies to the general public on a regular basis; and
(c) Fifteen hundred feet from any other adult entertainment business.
(D) Ownership disclosure. If a person who wishes to operate an adult entertainment business is an individual, he or she must sign the application as applicant. If the owner of a proposed adult entertainment business is other than an individual, each individual who has a 10% or greater interest in the business must sign an application for a permit and/or license as applicant. If a corporation is listed as an owner of the adult business or is an entity which wishes to operate such a business, each individual having a 10% or greater interest in the corporation, must sign the application for a permit and/or license as applicant. All corporate officers shall also sign the application. The fact that a person possesses other types of state or county permits and/or licenses does not exempt him or her from the requirement of obtaining a sexually oriented business permit and/or license.
(E) Age requirements. An adult entertainment business shall neither employ nor permit the admittance/patronage of any person who is under 21 years of age.
(F) Inspections. The management of adult entertainment businesses shall permit representatives of the Police Department, Sheriff’s Department, Health Department, Building Inspection Department, Zoning Code Enforcement Department, Fire Department, Planning and Zoning Department or other municipal, county or state departments to inspect the premises at any time it is open for business.
(G) Revocation of zoning compliance. The UDO Administrator shall remove a certificate of zoning compliance thereby suspending the operation of any adult entertainment business for the following:
(1) For giving false or misleading information by the permittee at any time in the application process;
(2) Illegal sale of any controlled substance on the premises;
(3) Failure to permit inspection by authorized municipal, county and state agencies or its authorized personnel;
(4) Violation of age restrictions as specified in this section; and
(5) For the arrest and conviction of any owner or employee for violation of any of the ABC laws or controlled substance laws of the state.
(H) Regulations for adult motels.
(1) Evidence that a sleeping room in a hotel, motel or similar commercial enterprise has been rented and vacated two or more times in a period of time that is less than ten hours creates a rebuttal presumption that the enterprise is an adult motel as that term is defined in this Unified Development Ordinance.
(2) It is unlawful if a person, as the person in control of a sleeping room in a hotel, motel or similar commercial enterprise that does not have a sexually oriented business license, rents or subrents a sleeping room to a person and, within ten hours from the time the room is rented, he or she rents or subrents the same sleeping room again.
(3) For the purpose of this subchapter, the terms
RENT and SUBRENT mean the act of permitting a room to be occupied for any form of consideration.
(I) Regulations for nude model studios.
(1) A nude model studio shall not employ any person under the age of 21 years.
(2) A person under the age of 21 years is in violation of this section if the person appears semi-nude or in a state of nudity in or on the premises of a nude model studio. It is a defense to prosecution under this division (I)(2) if the person under 21 years was in a restroom not open to the public view or visible by any other person.
(3) It is a violation of this section if the person appears in a state of nudity, or knowingly allows another to appear in a state of nudity in an area of a nude model studio premises which can be viewed from the public right-of-way.
(4) A nude model studio shall not place or permit a bed, sofa or mattress in any room on the premises, except that a sofa may be placed in a reception room open to the public.
(J) Regulations pertaining to exhibition of sexually explicit films, videos and live performances.
(1) A person who operates or causes to be operated a sexually oriented business, other than an adult motel, which exhibits on the premises in a viewing room of less than 150 square feet of floor space, a film, video cassette, other video reproduction, or live performance that depicts specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas, shall comply with the following requirements.
(a) Upon application for a certificate of zoning compliance for a sexually oriented business license, the application shall be accompanied by a diagram of the premises showing a plan thereof specifying the location of one or more managers’ stations and the location of all overhead lighting fixtures and designating any portion of the premises in which patrons will not be permitted. A manager’s station may not exceed 32 square feet of floor area. The diagram shall also designate the place at which the business license will be conspicuously posted, if granted. A professionally prepared diagram in the nature of an engineer’s or architect’s blueprint shall not be required; however, each diagram should be oriented to the north or to some designed street or object and should be drawn to a designated scale or with marked dimensions sufficient to show the various internal dimensions of all areas of the interior of the premises to an accuracy of plus or minus six inches. The UDO Administrator may waive the foregoing diagram for renewal applications if the applicant adopts a diagram that was previously submitted and certifies that the configuration of the premises has not been altered since it was prepared.
(b) The application shall be sworn to be true and correct by the applicant.
(c) No alteration in the configuration or location of a manager’s station may be made without the prior approval of the UDO Administrator.
(d) It is the duty of the owner(s) and operator of the premises to ensure that at least one employee is on duty and situated in each manager’s station at all times that any patron is present inside the premises.
(e) The interior of the premises shall be configured in such a manner that there is an unobstructed view from a manager’s station of the entire area of the premises to which any patron is permitted access for any purpose excluding restrooms. Restrooms may not contain video reproduction equipment. If the premises has two or more manager’s stations designed, then the interior of the premises shall be configured in such a manner that there is an unobstructed view of the entire area of the premises to which any patron is permitted access for any purpose from at least one of the manager’s stations. The view required in this division (J)(1)(e) must be by direct line of sight from the manager’s station.
(f) It shall be the duty of the owner(s) and operator, and it shall also be the duty of the agent(s) and employee(s) present in the premises, to ensure that the view area specified in division (J)(1)(e) above remains unobstructed by any doors, walls, merchandise, display racks or other materials at all times and to ensure that no patron is permitted access to any area of the premises that has been designated as an area in which patrons will not be permitted in the application filed pursuant to division (J)(1)(a) above.
(g) No viewing room may be occupied by more than one person at any time.
(h) The premises shall be equipped with overhead lighting fixtures of sufficient intensity to illuminate every place to which patrons are permitted access at an illumination of not less than five footcandles as measured at the floor level.
(i) It shall be the duty of the owner(s) and operator, and it shall be the duty of any agent(s) and employee(s) present in the premises, to ensure that the illumination described above is maintained at all times that any patron is present in the premises.
(j) No licensee shall allow an opening of any kind to exist between viewing rooms or booths.
(k) No person shall make or attempt to make an opening of any kind between viewing booths or rooms.
(l) The operator of the sexually oriented business shall, during each business day, inspect the walls between the viewing booths to determine if any openings or holes exist.
(m) The operator of the sexually oriented business shall cause all floor coverings in viewing booths to be nonporous, easily cleanable surfaces, with no rugs or carpeting.
(n) The operator of the sexually oriented business shall cause all wall surfaces and ceiling surfaces in viewing booths to be constructed of, or permanently covered by, nonporous, easily cleanable material. No wood, plywood, composition board or other porous material shall be used within 48 inches of the floor.
(2) A person having a duty under divisions (J)(1)(a) through (J)(1)(n) of this section is in violation of this section if he or she knowingly fails to fulfill that duty.
(K) Exterior portions of regulated establishments.
(1) It shall be unlawful for an owner or operator of a regulated establishment to allow the merchandise or activities of the regulated establishment to be visible from any point outside such regulated establishment.
(2) It shall be unlawful for the owner or operator of a regulated establishment to allow the exterior portions of the regulated establishment to have flashing lights, or any words, lettering, photographs, drawings or pictorial representations of any manner except to the extent permitted by the provisions of this section.
(3) It shall be unlawful for the owner or operator of a regulated establishment to allow exterior portions of the regulated establishment to be painted any color other than a single achromatic color (i.e., zero saturation and without hue). This provision shall not apply to any regulated establishment if the following conditions are met.
(a) The regulated establishment is a part of a commercial multi-unit center.
(b) The exterior portions of each individual unit in the commercial multi-unit center, including the exterior portions of the regulated establishment are painted the same color as one another or are painted in such a way so as to be a component of the overall architectural style or pattern of the commercial multi-unit center.
(4) Nothing in this section shall be construed to require the painting of an otherwise unpainted exterior portion of a regulated establishment.
(5) Nothing in this section shall supersede or replace any sign regulation already in effect within the town, but shall be in addition thereto.
(O) Hours of operation. No adult establishment shall operate before 4:00 p.m. or after 12:00 midnight, except that tattooing establishments, body piercing businesses and fortune tellers, as defined herein, shall only conduct business to the public between 8:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. daily.
(P) Revocation of license. In addition to any other remedies, the town may apply to General Court of Justice for suitable equitable relief to abate or otherwise enjoin any violation of this section. Any violation would result in revocation of permit or license.
(Q) Business license. Any person or other entity, prior to operating an adult entertainment business, shall apply for a business license for the appropriate category of business of the adult entertainment establishment. The applicant shall pay the fee therefor as set forth in G.S. Chapter 105.
(Ord. eff. 9-6-2012, § 7.4; Am. Ord. 21-1, passed 9-17-2020)