Based on evidence concerning the adverse secondary effects of adult uses in other communities, including, Phoenix, Arizona; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Houston, Texas; Indianapolis, Indiana; Amarillo, Texas; Los Angeles, California; Austin, Texas; Seattle, Washington; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Beaumont, Texas; and also on findings found in the report of the Attorney General’s Working Group On The Regulation Of Sexually-Oriented Businesses (June 6, 1989, of the state), the Council finds:
(A) Sexually-oriented businesses in the city 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;
(B) Certain employees of sexually-oriented businesses defined in this chapter as adult theaters and cabarets engage in higher incident of certain types of sexually-oriented behavior at these businesses than employees of other establishments;
(C) Sexual acts, including masturbation, oral and anal sex, occur at sexually-oriented businesses, especially those that provide private, or semi-private, booths or cubicles for viewing films, videos, or live sex shows, as defined under this chapter as adult book stores, adult novelty shops, adult video stores, adult motion picture theaters, or adult arcades;
(D) Offering, and providing, such space encourages such activities, which create unhealthy conditions;
(E) Persons frequent certain adult theaters, adult arcades, and other sexually-oriented businesses for the purpose of engaging in sex within the premises of the sexually-oriented businesses;
(F) 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 (AIDS), genital herpes, hepatitis B, non A, non B amebiasis, salmonella infections, and shigella infections;
(G) 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 those facilities to self-regulate those activities, and maintain those facilities;
(H) Numerous studies and reports have determined that semen is found in the areas of sexually-oriented businesses where persons view adult-oriented films;
(I) Sexually-oriented businesses have operational characteristics which should be reasonably regulated in order to protect those substantial governmental concerns;
(J) 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, 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;
(K) Removal of doors on adult booths, and requiring sufficient lighting on premises with adult booths advances a substantial governmental interest in curbing the illegal, and unsanitary, sexual activity occurring in adult theaters;
(L) Requiring licensees of sexually-oriented businesses to keep information regarding current employees and certain past employees will help reduce the incidence of certain types of criminal behavior by facilitating the identification of potential witnesses or suspects, and by preventing minors from working in the establishments;
(M) The disclosure of certain information by those persons ultimately responsible for the day to day operation, and maintenance, of the sexually-oriented business, where the information is substantially related to the significant governmental interest in the operation of the uses, will aid in preventing the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases;
(N) 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 the conduct which this chapter is designed to prevent, or who are likely to be witnesses to, such activity;
(O) 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 is likely to engage in that conduct in contravention of this chapter;
(P) The barring of the individual from the management of adult uses for a period of five years serves as a deterrent to, and prevents, conduct which leads to the transmission of sexually-transmitted diseases; and
(Q) The general welfare, health, and safety of the citizens of the city will be promoted by the enactment of this chapter.
(Prior Code, § 11.70)