(a) The town hereby finds and determines, as a matter of fact, that the late night and all night rave clubs and similar forums of assembly, commonly referred to as "raves," are sites for the sale, possession and use of illicit drugs.
(b) The town also finds such raves expose drug activity to the uninitiated youth of the community, and such exposure to drug activity occurring at such raves is often found to result in drug addiction, overdose and death of both juveniles and adults.
(c) The town hereby finds raves provide an arena for predatory-type sexual crimes, thus, for the protection of our town's youth, juveniles should not congregate in such social settings with adults; additionally, regulation of raves is also necessary for the protection of adult victims of such crimes.
(d) The town hereby finds raves are often times the sites for violent criminal activity, as well as street gang activity as defined in Chapter 874, Florida Statutes.
(e) The town hereby finds that the dangerous criminal activity occurring at such raves occurs predominately in the late night/early morning hours.
(f) The town hereby finds that the actions of rave patrons entering and exiting rave club establishments has a deleterious effect on nearby residential and commercial properties in terms of excessive noise, traffic and debris, and such impacts are exacerbated by the fact that rave patrons enter and exit such raves at extraordinarily late night/early morning hours when citizens have a reasonable expectation of peace and quiet.
(g) The town finds that the above-referenced problems associated with raves are unique and specific to such rave club establishments and are not prevalent in other types of unregulated places of assembly.
(h) It is the intent of the town to address the unique problems associated with raves by implementing rave club regulations for both juvenile and adult rave clubs to prevent rave club contact between juveniles and adults so as to prevent and/or reduce illicit or undesirable juvenile involvement and exposure to illegal drugs and dangerous criminal activity, and further to protect both juveniles and adults from criminal activity that occurs at such raves.
(i) The town hereby asserts that the following purposes of the rave club regulations set forth herein are matters of legitimate, substantial and compelling governmental interests:
(1) To protect juveniles and adults from illegal drug activity, including use, sale and drug abuse such as overdoses and to reduce, if not eliminate, such activity from occurring in rave clubs;
(2) To protect juveniles and adults from violent criminal activity occurring in rave clubs;
(3) To protect juveniles and adult victims from predatory-type sexual crimes occurring in rave clubs;
(4) To protect juveniles and adults from gang-related activity occurring in rave clubs;
(5) To reduce the amount of criminal activity occurring predominately in the late night/early morning hours;
(6) To prevent the deleterious impacts of noise, traffic and debris on adjacent residential and commercial property that occur in the late night/early morning hours.
(Ord. 2002-02, passed 4-17-02)