Studies conducted by the Minnesota Attorney General and the Texas City Attorneys' Association, as well as the cities of St. Paul, Alexandria, and Rochester, Minnesota; Indianapolis, Indiana; Phoenix, Arizona; Los Angeles, California; Seattle, Washington; St. Croix County, Wisconsin; Adams County and the City of Denver, Colorado, have examined the impact that adult establishments have on their respective communities. These studies concluded that adult establishments have an adverse impact on surrounding neighborhoods. Those impacts include increased crime rates, lower property values, increased transiency, neighborhood blight and potential health risks. The City Council of the City of Harris is relying on the studies, many of which were conducted in larger cities, recognizing that the same or similar adverse impacts could occur in a small city such as the City of Harris. Based on these studies, the City Council makes the following findings regarding the need to regulate adult establishments:
(A) The public health, safety, morals and general welfare will be promoted by the city adopting regulations governing adult establishments.
(B) Adult establishments have adverse secondary impacts of the types set forth above.
(C) The adverse impacts caused by adult establishments tend to diminish if adult establishments are governed by location requirements, licensing requirements and health requirements.
(D) It is not the intent to prohibit adult establishments from having a reasonable opportunity to locate in the city.
(E) Many members of the public perceive areas within which adult establishments are located as less safe than other areas that do not have such uses.
(F) A reasonable licensing procedure is an appropriate mechanism to place the burden of reasonable regulation on the owners and the operators of the adult establishment. A licensing procedure will place an incentive on the operators to see that the adult establishment is run in a manner consistent with the health, safety and welfare of its patrons 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 sexually-oriented business, fully in possession and control of the premises and activities occurring therein.
(G) The fact that an applicant for an adult use license has been convicted of a sexually-related crime leads to the rational assumption that the applicant may engage in that conduct in contravention of this chapter.
(H) The barring of individuals with sexually-related criminal convictions from the management of adult establishments for a period of years serves as a deterrent to and prevents conduct which may lead to the transmission of sexually-transmitted diseases.
(I) The general health, safety, and welfare of the community is promoted by prohibiting nudity in adult establishments. This prohibition is based on concerns of potential adverse effects such as prostitution, the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, exposure to minors, obscenity and unsanitary conditions in public places.
(J) Small cities experience many of the same adverse impacts of adult establishments present in larger communities.
(Ord. 2010-02, passed 2-8-2010)
For the purpose of this chapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
ADULT ESTABLISHMENT. Any business that:
(1) Devotes a substantial or significant portion of its inventory, stock-in-trade, or publicly-displayed merchandise, or devotes a substantial or significant portion of its floor area (not including storerooms, stock areas, bathrooms, basements, or any portion of the business not open to the public) to, or derives a substantial or significant portion of its gross revenues from items, merchandise, devices or other materials distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on material depicting, exposing, simulating, describing, or relating to specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas; or
(2) Engages in any adult use as defined in this section.
ADULT USE. Any of the activities and businesses described below:
(1) ADULT BOOKSTORE OR VIDEOSTORE. An establishment or business used for the barter, rental, or sale of items consisting of printed matter, pictures, slides, records, audio tape, videotape, movies, or motion picture film if a substantial or significant portion of its inventory, stock-in- trade, or publicly-displayed merchandise consists of, or if a substantial or significant portion of its floor area (not including storerooms, stock areas, bathrooms, basements, or any portion of the business not open to the public) is devoted to, or if substantial or significant portion of its gross revenues is derived from items, merchandise, devices or materials that are distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on material depicting, exposing, simulating, describing, or relating to specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas.
(2) ADULT ENTERTAINMENT CENTER. A business or establishment that provides dancing or other live entertainment distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on the presentation, display, or depiction of "specified sexual activities" or "specified anatomical areas."
(3) ADULT COMPANIONSHIP ESTABLISHMENT. A business or establishment that provides the service of engaging in or listening to conversation, talk or discussion between an employee of the establishment and a customer, if such service is distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on "specified sexual activities" or "specified anatomical areas."
(4) ADULT CONVERSATION/RAP PARLOR. A business or establishment that provides the service of engaging in or listening to conversation, talk or discussion, if such service is distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on "specified sexual activities" or "specified anatomical areas."
(5) ADULT HEALTH/SPORT CLUB. A health/sport club, which is distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on "specified sexual activities" or "specified anatomical areas."
(6) ADULT HOTEL OR MOTEL. A hotel or motel wherein material is presented which is distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on matter depicting, describing or relating to "specified sexual activities" or "specified anatomical areas."
(7) ADULT MASSAGE PARLOR, HEALTH CLUB. A massage parlor or health club which provides the services of massage, if such service is distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on "specified sexual activities" or "specified anatomical areas."
(8) ADULT MOTION PICTURE THEATER. A motion picture theater that as a prevailing practice presents movies distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on "specified sexual activities" or "specified anatomical areas" for observation by patrons.
(9) ADULT MODELING STUDIO. An establishment whose major business is the provision, to customers, of figure models who are so provided with the intent of providing sexual stimulation or sexual gratification to such customers and who engage in "specified sexual activities" or display "specified anatomical areas" while being observed, painted, painted upon, sketched, drawn, sculptured, photographed or otherwise depicted by such customers.
(10) ADULT MOTION PICTURE ARCADE. Any place to which the public is permitted or invited wherein coin or slug-operated or electronically, electrically or mechanically controlled or operated 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 or describing "specified sexual activities" or "specified anatomical areas."
(11) ADULT NOVELTY BUSINESS. A business which has as a principal activity the sale of devices which stimulate human genitals or devices which are designed for sexual stimulation.
(12) ADULT SAUNA. A sauna that provides a steam bath or heat bathing room used for the purpose of bathing, relaxation or reducing, utilizing steam or hot air as a cleaning, relaxing or reducing agent, if the service provided by the sauna is distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on "specified sexual activities" or "specified anatomical areas."
(13) ADULT STEAM ROOM/BATHHOUSE FACILITY. A building or portion of a building used for providing a steam bath or heat bathing room used for the purpose of pleasure, bathing, relaxation, or reducing, utilizing steam or hot air as a cleaning, relaxing or reducing agent if the service provided by the steam room/bathhouse facility is distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on "specified sexual activities" or "specified anatomical areas."
NUDE or SPECIFIED ANATOMICAL AREAS.
(1) The showing of the human male or female genitals, pubic area, or anus with less than a fully opaque covering; the showing of the female breast with less than a fully opaque covering of any part of the nipple; the exposure of any device, costume, or covering which gives the appearance of or simulates the genitals, pubic hair, natal cleft, perineum anal region or pubic hair region; or the exposure of any device worn as a cover over the nipples and/or areola of the female breast, which device simulates and gives the realistic appearance of nipples and/or areola; or
(2) Human male genitals in a discernibly turgid state, even if completely and opaquely covered.
SPECIFIED SEXUAL ACTIVITIES.
(1) Actual or simulated sexual intercourse, oral copulation, anal intercourse, oral-anal copulation, bestiality, direct physical stimulation of unclothed genitals, flagellation or torture in the context of a sexual relationship, or the use of excretory functions in the context of a sexual relationship, and any of the following sexually-oriented acts or conduct: anilingus, buggery, coprophagy, coprophilia, cunnilingus, fellatio, necrophilia, pederasty, pedophilia, piquerism, sapphism, zooerasty; or
(2) Clearly depicted human genitals in the state of sexual stimulation, arousal or tumescence; or
(3) Use of human or animal ejaculation, sodomy, oral copulation, coitus or masturbation; or
(4) Fondling or touching of nude human genitals, pubic region, buttocks or female breast; or
(5) Situations involving a person or person, any of whom are nude, clad in undergarments or in sexually revealing costumes, and who are engaged in activities involving the flagellation, torture, fettering, binding or other physical restraint of any such person; or
(6) Actual or simulated erotic or lewd touching, fondling or other sexually-oriented contact with an animal by a human being; or
(7) Human excretion, urination, menstruation, vaginal or anal irrigation.
SUBSTANTIAL or SIGNIFICANT PORTION. Twenty percent or more.
(Ord. 2010-02, passed 2-8-2010; Am. Ord. 2011-02, passed 1-10-2011)
Adult establishments operating before the effective date of this chapter shall be subject to all of the licensing requirements in this chapter, except that such pre-existing establishments may continue to operate with any intoxicating liquor, beer or wine license obtained before the effective date of this chapter.
(Ord. 2010-02, passed 2-8-2010) Penalty, see § 117.99
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