(A) Purpose. It is the purpose of this chapter to regulate adult entertainment businesses and related activities, to promote the health, safety, morals and general welfare of the citizens of the city, and to establish reasonable and uniform provisions to prevent the deleterious effects of adult entertainment businesses within the city. The provisions of this chapter have neither the purpose nor effect of imposing a limitation or restriction on the content of any communicative materials, including sexually oriented materials. Similarly, it is not the intent nor effect of this chapter to restrict or deny access by the distributors and exhibitors of sexually oriented entertainment to their intended market. Further, it is not the intent nor effect of this chapter to condone or legitimize the distribution of obscene materials. It is not the intent nor effect of this chapter to limit or restrict the lawful activities permitted under I.C. 7.1.
(B) Findings. Based on evidence concerning the adverse secondary effects of adult entertainment businesses on the community presented in hearing(s) and in reports made available to the Common Council of the city, and on findings incorporated in the cases of City of Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc., 475 U.S. 41 (1986), Young v. American Mini Theatres, 426 U.S. 50 (1976), Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc., 501 U.S. 560 (1991), Arcara v. Cloud Books, Inc., 478 U.S. 697 (1986), California v. LaRue, 409 U.S. 109 (1972), Iacobucci v. City of Newport, KY, 479 U.S. 92 (1986), United States v. O’Brien, 391 U.S. 367 (1968), City of Erie v. Pap’s A.M., 120 S.Ct. 1382 (2000), City of Los Angeles v. Alameda Books, Inc., 122 S.Ct. 1728 (2002), Broadway Books, Inc. v. Roberts, 642 F.Supp. 486 (E.D. Tenn. 1986), DLS, Inc. v. City of Chattanooga, 107 F.3d 403 (6th Cir. 1997), Pleasureland Museum, Inc. v. Beutter, 2002 WL 818791 (7th Cir. 2002), Kev, Inc. v. Kitsap County, 793 F.2d 1053 (9th Cir. 1986), Hang On, Inc. v. City of Arlington, 65 F.2d 1248 (5th Cir. 1995), South Florida Free Beaches, Inc. v. City of Miami, 734 F.2d 608 (11th Cir. 1984), and Mitchell et al v. Commission on Adult Entertainment Establishments of the State of Delaware et al, 10 F.3d 123 (3rd Cir. 1993), Ellwest Stereo Theatre, Inc. v. Boner, 718 F.Supp. 1553 (M.D. Tenn. 1989), City of Lincoln, Nebraska v. ABC Books, Inc., 470 N.W.2d 760 (Neb. 1991), Berg v. Health & Hosp. Corp. of Marion County, 865 F.2d 797 (7th Cir. 1989), Shultz v. Cumberland, 228 F.3d 831 (7th Cir. 2000), as well as studies conducted in other communities including, but not limited to: Phoenix, Arizona; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Houston, Texas; Indianapolis, Indiana; Amarillo, Texas; Garden Grove, California; Los Angeles, California; Whittier, California; Austin, Texas; Seattle, Washington; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Cleveland, Ohio; and Beaumont, Texas; findings reported in the Final Report of the Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography (1986), the Report of the Attorney General’s Working Group On the Regulation of Sexually Oriented Businesses (June 6, 1989, State of Minnesota); and statistics of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Common Council finds:
(1) Adult entertainment businesses lend themselves to ancillary unlawful and unhealthy activities that are presently insufficiently controlled by the operators of the establishments. Further, there is presently no sufficient mechanism to make owners and/or operators of these establishments responsible for the activities that occur on the premises;
(2) Crime statistics show that all types of crimes, especially sex-related crimes, occur with more frequency in neighborhoods where adult entertainment businesses are located;
(3) Sexual acts, including masturbation, oral sex and anal sex, occur at adult entertainment businesses, especially those which provide booths or cubicles for viewing films, videos or live sex shows;
(4) Acts of prostitution commonly occur at adult entertainment businesses;
(5) The availability of booths and/or cubicles facilitates such activities, which creates unhealthy conditions.
(6) Persons frequent certain adult theaters and other adult entertainment businesses for the purpose of engaging in sex within the premises;
(7) At least 50 communicable diseases may be spread by activities that occur in adult entertainment businesses, including, but not limited to syphilis, gonorrhea, human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV-AIDS), genital herpes, hepatitis B, Non A, salmonella infections and shigella infections;
(8) For the period 1985 through 1995, the total number of reported cases of AIDS in the United States caused by the immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was 523,056 (Statistics of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.);
(9) Since 1981 and to the present, there has been an increasing cumulative number of persons testing positive for HIV antibody test in the State of Indiana;
(10) The total number of cases of early (less than one year) syphilis in the United States reported during the period 1985 through 1995 was 367,796 (Statistics of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.);
(11) The number of cases of gonorrhea in the United States reported annually remains at a high level, with a total of 1,250,581 cases reported during the period 1993 through 1995 (Statistics of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention);
(12) The Surgeon General of the United States in his report of October 22, 1986 advised the public that AIDS and HIV infection may be transmitted through sexual contact;
(13) According to the best scientific evidence available, AIDS and HIV infection, as well as syphilis and gonorrhea, are principally transmitted by sexual acts (Findings of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.);
(14) Sanitary conditions in some adult entertainment businesses are unhealthy, in part, because the activities conducted there are unhealthy, and, in part, because of the unregulated nature of the activities and the failure of the owners and the operators of the facilities to self-regulate those activities and maintain those facilities;
(15) Prostitution, sexual assaults and other criminal activity occur at adult entertainment businesses;
(16) Prostitution and other criminal activities have occurred at adult entertainment businesses in Hammond and other communities in Lake County and elsewhere in Indiana;
(17) Prostitution is connected to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases;
(18) Adult entertainment businesses have operational characteristics which should be reasonably regulated in order to protect those substantial governmental concerns;
(19) Reasonable licensing procedures are an appropriate mechanism to place the burden of the reasonable regulation on the owners, operators and employees of adult entertainment businesses. Further, a licensing procedure will place a heretofore nonexistent incentive on the owners and operators to ensure that the adult entertainment business is operated in a manner consistent with the health, safety and welfare of its customers and employees, as well as the citizens of the city. It is appropriate to require reasonable assurances that the licensee is the actual operator of the adult entertainment businesses, fully in possession and control of the premises and activities;
(20) The disclosure of certain information by those persons ultimately responsible for the daily operation and maintenance of an adult entertainment business, where the information is substantially related to the significant governmental interest in the operation of such uses, will aid in preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and criminal activity;
(21) It is desirable in the prevention of the spread of communicable diseases to obtain a limited amount of information regarding certain employees who may engage in conduct this chapter is designed to prevent or who are likely to be witnesses to such activity;
(22) Education and testing are effective in reducing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases;
(23) Compiling information about incidents of sexually transmitted diseases will assist the city in its future drafting of ordinances such as this one and other public health ordinances; and
(24) The general welfare, health, morals and safety, of the citizens of the city will be promoted by the enactment of this chapter.
(Prior Code, § 128.01) (Ord. 8463, passed 1-13-2003)