(A) Generally.
(1) The County Board of Commissioners or its designee, shall grant or deny an application for a permit within 30 days from the date of its proper filing.
(2) Upon the expiration of the thirtieth day, unless the applicant requests and is granted a reasonable extension of time, the applicant shall be permitted to begin operating the business for which the permit is sought, unless and until the County Board of Commissioners or its designee, notifies the applicant of a denial of the application and states the reason(s) for that denial.
(B) Grant of application for permit.
(1) The County Board of Commissioners or its designee shall grant the application unless one or more criteria set forth in division (C) below is present.
(2) The permit, if granted, shall state on its face the name of the person or persons to whom it is granted, the expiration date and the address of the sexually-oriented business. The permit shall also indicate that the sexually-oriented business shall be subject to prohibitions against public nudity and indecency pursuant to the I.C. 35-45-4-1 and 35-45-4-1.5. The permit shall be posted in a conspicuous place at or near the entrance to the sexually-oriented business so that it can be read easily at any time.
(C) Denial of application for permit.
(1) The County Board of Commissioners or its designee shall deny the application for any of the following reasons:
(a) An applicant is under 18 years of age;
(b) An applicant or an applicant’s spouse is overdue on his or her payment to the county of taxes, fees, fines or penalties assessed against him or her or imposed upon him or her in relation to a sexually-oriented business;
(c) An applicant is residing with a person who has been denied a permit by the County Board of Commissioners to operate a sexually-oriented business within the preceding 12 months, or residing with a person whose permit to operate a sexually-oriented business has been revoked within the preceding 12 months;
(d) An applicant has failed to provide information required by this section or permit application for the issuance of the permit or has falsely answered a question or request for information on the application form;
(e) The premises to be used for the sexually-oriented business have not been approved as being in compliance with health, fire and building codes by the department or agency responsible under law for investigating said compliance;
(f) The application or permit fees required by this chapter have not been paid;
(g) An applicant of the proposed business is in violation of, or is not in compliance with, any of the provisions of this chapter or the county zoning ordinance;
(h) The granting of the application would violate a statute, ordinance or court order;
(i) The applicant has a permit under this chapter that has been suspended or revoked;
(j) An applicant has been convicted of a specified criminal act for which:
1. Less than two years have elapsed since the date of conviction or the date of release from confinement, whichever is the later date, if the conviction is of a misdemeanor offense for the specified criminal acts which are sexual crimes against children, sexual abuse, rape or crimes connected with another sexually-oriented business, including, but not limited to, distribution of obscenity or material harmful to minors, prostitution, pandering or tax violations;
2. Less than five years have elapsed since the date of conviction or the date of release from confinement, whichever is the later date, if the conviction is of a felony offense; for the specified criminal acts which are sexual crimes against children, sexual abuse, rape or crimes connected with another sexually-oriented business, including, but not limited to, distribution of obscenity or material harmful to minors, prostitution or tax violations;
3. Less than five years have elapsed since the date of conviction or the date of release from confinement, whichever is the later date, if the convictions are of two or more misdemeanor offenses for specified criminal acts which are sexual crimes against children, sexual abuse, rape or crimes connected with another sexually-oriented business, including, but not limited to, distribution of obscenity or materials harmful to minors, prostitution, pandering or tax violations; offenses occurring with any 24-month period;
4. The fact that a conviction is being appealed shall have no effect on disqualification of the applicant; or
5. An applicant who has been convicted of the above described specified criminal acts may qualify for a sexually-oriented business permit only when the time period required above in this division (C)(1) has elapsed.
(2) If the County Board of Commissioners or its designee denies the application, he or she shall notify the applicant of the denial and state the reason(s) for the denial.
(3) If a person applies for a permit for a particular location within a period of 12 months from the date of denial of a previous application for a permit at the location, and there has not been an intervening change in the circumstances which could reasonably be expected to lead to a different decision regarding the former reasons for denial, the application shall be denied.
(Ord. 2002-03, passed 4-15-2002)