(a) Purpose. It is the purpose of this chapter to regulate sexually oriented businesses
in order to promote the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of the citizens of the City, and to establish reasonable and uniform regulations to prevent the deleterious location and concentration of sexually oriented businesses within the City, thereby reducing or eliminating the adverse secondary effects from such sexually oriented businesses. 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 adults to sexually oriented materials protected by the First Amendment, or to deny access by the distributors and exhibitors of sexually oriented entertainment to their intended market. Neither is it the intent nor effect of this chapter to condone or legitimize the distribution of obscene material.
(b) Findings. Based on evidence concerning the adverse secondary effects of adult uses on the community presented in hearings and in reports made available to the Council, and on findings incorporated in the cases of City of Erie v. Pap's A.M., 529 U.S. 277, (2000), Barnes v. Glen Theater, Inc., 501 U.S. 560 (1991), City of Renton v. Playtime Theaters, Inc., 475 U.S. 41, (1986), Young v. American Mini Theaters, 426 U.S. 50 (1976), DLS, Inc. v. City of Chattanooga, 107 F.3D 403 (6th Cir. 1997), Harris v. Fitchville Township Trustees, 99 F. Supp. 2D 837 (N.D. Ohio 2000), Bamon Corp. v. City of Dayton, 730 F. Supp. 90 (S.D. Ohio 1990, AFF'd, 923 F. 2D 470 (6th Cir. 1991), and Broadway Books v. Roberts, 642 F. Supp. 486 (S.D. Tenn. 1986); and on studies in other communities including, but not limited to, Phoenix, Arizona (1984); Minneapolis, Minnesota (1980); Houston, Texas (1983); Indianapolis, Indiana (1984); Amarillo, Texas (1977); Garden Grove, California (1991); Los Angeles, California (1977); Whittier, California (1978); Austin, Texas (1986); Seattle, Washington (1989); Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (1986); Cleveland, Ohio (1977); Dallas, Texas (1997); St. Croix County, Wisconsin (1993); Bellevue, Washington (1998); Newport News, Virginia (1996); Tucson, Arizona (1990); St. Paul, Minnesota (1988); Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (1986 and 1992); Beaumont, Texas (1982); New York, New York (1994); Ellicottville, New York (1998); Des Moines, Iowa (1984); Islip, New York (1980); Adams County, Colorado (1987); Manatee County, Florida (1987); New Hanover County, North Carolina (1989); Las Vegas, Nevada (1978); Cattaraugas County, New York (1998); Cleburne, Texas (1997); Dallas, Texas (1997); El Paso, Texas (1986); New York Times Square Study ( 1994); Report to Aclj on the secondary impacts of sex oriented businesses (1996); the findings from the report of the Attorney General's working group on the regulation of sexually oriented businesses (June 6, 1989, State of Minnesota), various police reports, testimony, newspaper reports and other documentary evidence, the Council finds:
(1) Sexually oriented businesses lend themselves to ancillary unlawful and unhealthy activities that are presently uncontrolled by the operators of the establishments. Further, there is presently no mechanism to make the owners of these establishments responsible for the activities that occur on their premises.
(2) Certain employees of sexually oriented businesses defined in this chapter as adult theaters and cabarets engage in higher incidence of certain types of illicit sexual behavior than employees of other establishments.
(3) Sexual acts, including masturbation, and oral and anal sex, occur at sexually oriented businesses, especially those which provide private or semi-private booths or cubicles for viewing films, videos, or live sex shows.
(4) Offering and providing such space encourages such activities, which creates unhealthy conditions.
(5) Persons frequent certain adult theaters, adult arcades, and other sexually oriented businesses for the purpose of engaging in sex within the premises of such sexually oriented businesses.
(6) At least 50 communicable diseases may be spread by activities occurring in sexually oriented businesses, including, but not limited to, syphilis, gonorrhea, human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV-AIDS), genital herpes, hepatitis B, Non A, Non B amebiasis, salmonella infections and shigella infections.
(7) According to research from the Kaiser Family Foundation, an estimated 650,000 to 900,000 Americans are infected with HIV. The number of new HIV infections occurring each year is now about 41,000. Men and women of all races are most likely to be infected by sexual contact.
(8) A total of 10,255 AIDS cases has been reported in Ohio as of January 1999. Ohio has required HIV case reporting since 1990, and shows 7969 people living with HIV (4,213) and AIDS (3,756) in the State.
(9) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that as many as 1 in 3 people with HIV do not know they are infected.
(10) The number of cases of early (less than one year) syphilis in the United States reported annually has risen, with 33,613 cases reported in 1982 and 45,200 through November of 1990.
(11) The number of cases of gonorrhea in the United States reported annually remains at a high level, with over one-half million cases being reported in 1990.
(12) The Surgeon General of the United States in his report of October 22, 1986, has advised the American public that AIDS and HIV infection may be transmitted through sexual contact, intravenous drug abuse, exposure to infected blood and blood components, and from an infected mother to her newborn.
(13) According to the best scientific evidence, AIDS and HIV infection, as well as syphilis and gonorrhea, are principally transmitted by sexual acts, see, e.g. findings of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
(14) Sanitary conditions in some sexually oriented 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) Numerous studies and reports have determined that semen is found in the areas of sexually oriented businesses where persons view "adult" oriented films.
(16) The findings noted in subsection (b)(1) through (15) hereof raise substantial governmental concerns.
(17) Sexually oriented businesses have operational characteristics which should be reasonably regulated in order to protect those substantial governmental concerns.
(18) A reasonable licensing procedure is an appropriate mechanism to place the burden of that reasonable regulation on the owners and the operators of the sexually oriented businesses. Further, such a licensing procedure will place a heretofore nonexistent incentive on the operators to see that the sexually oriented business 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.
(Ord. 01-92. Passed 2-6-01.)