(a) In enacting this chapter, pursuant to Section 715.55 of the Ohio Revised Code, the Sunbury Village Council makes the following statement of intent and findings:
(1) Adult entertainment establishments require special supervision from the public safety agencies of the Village of Sunbury in order to protect and preserve the health, safety, morals, and welfare of the patrons and employees of the businesses as well as the citizens of the Village of Sunbury.
(2) The Sunbury Village Council finds that adult entertainment establishments are frequently used for unlawful sexual activities, including prostitution and sexual liaisons of a casual nature.
(3) The concern over sexually transmitted diseases is a legitimate health concern of the Village of Sunbury that demands reasonable regulation of adult entertainment establishments by the Village of Sunbury in the specified manner, and expanded authority for reasonable regulation of adult entertainment establishments by local governments, in order to protect the health and well-being of the citizens.
1 This section is modified from the purpose and intent version included in House Bill No. 23 (2006) and Senate Bill No. 16 (2007). It is placed here to maintain consistency with the enacting legislation.
(4) Minimal regulations enacted by the Village of Sunbury are a legitimate and reasonable means of accountability to ensure that operators of adult entertainment establishments comply with reasonable regulations and to ensure that operators do not knowingly allow their establishments to be used as places of illegal sexual activity or solicitation.
(5) There is convincing documented evidence that adult entertainment establishments, because of their very nature, have a deleterious effect on both the existing businesses around them and the surrounding residential areas adjacent to them, cause increased crime, particularly in the overnight hours, and downgrade property values.
(6) The Sunbury Village Council desires to minimize and control these adverse effects by regulating adult entertainment establishments in the specified manner, and by minimizing and controlling these adverse effects, the Sunbury Village Council seeks to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the citizenry; protect the citizens from increased crime; reserve the quality of life; preserve the property values and character of surrounding neighborhoods; and deter the spread of urban blight.
(7) The Sunbury Village Council has determined that current local zoning and other locational criteria do not adequately protect the health, safety, and general welfare of the people of the Village of Sunbury and that expanded regulation of adult entertainment establishments is necessary.
(8) It is not the intent of the Sunbury Village Council in enacting this act to suppress or authorize the suppression of any speech activities protected by the First Amendment, but to enact content-neutral statutes that address the secondary effects of adult entertainment establishments.
(9) It is not the intent of the Sunbury Village Council to condone or legitimize the distribution of obscene material, and the Sunbury Village Council recognizes that state and federal law prohibits the distribution of obscene materials and expects and encourages state law enforcement officials to enforce state obscenity statutes against any such illegal activities in this State.
(b) It is the intent of the Sunbury Village Council in enacting this chapter to regulate in the specified manner adult entertainment establislm1ents in order to promote the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of the citizens of the Village of Sunbury and establish reasonable regulations to prevent the deleterious secondary effects of adult entertainment establishments within the Village of Sunbury. 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 of the Sunbury Village Council in enacting this chapter to restrict or deny, or authorize the restriction or denial of, access by adults to sexually oriented materials protected by the First Amendment, or to deny, or authorize the denial of, access by the distributors and exhibitors of adult entertainment and adult materials to their intended market. Neither is it the intent nor effect of the Sunbury Village Council in enacting this Ordinance to condone or legitimize the distribution or exhibition of obscene material.
(c) Based on evidence concerning the adverse secondary effects of adult uses on communities presented in hearings and in repmis made available to the legislature and subsequently adopted by the Ollio General Assembly as findings under Section 3 of House Bill 23 (and on findings incorporated in the cases of Township of Littleton, Colorado v. Z.J. Gifts D-4, L.L.C. (2004), 541 U.S. 774; Township of Erie v. Pap's A.M (2000), 529 U.S. 277; Eames v. Glen Theatre, Inc. (1991), 501 U.S. 560; Township of Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc. (1986), 475 U.S. 41; Young v. American Mini Theatres (1976), 426 U.S. 50; Califomia v. LaRue (1972), 409 U.S. 109; DLS, Inc. v. Township of Chattanooga (6th Cir. 1997), 107 F.3d 403; East Brooks Books, Inc. v. Township of Memphis (6th Cir. 1995), 48 F.3d 220; Harris v. Fitchville Township Trustees (N.D. Ohio 2000), 99 F. Supp.2d 837; Eamon Corp. v. Township of Dayton (S.D. Ohio 1990), 730 F. Supp. 90, aff'd (6th Cir. 1991), 923 F.2d 470; Broadway Books v. Roberts (E.D. Te1m. 1986), 642 F. Supp. 486; Bright Lights, Inc. v. Township of Newport (E.D. Ky. 1993), 830 F. Supp. 378; Richland Bookmart v. Nichols (6th Cir. 1998), 137 F.3d 435; Deja Vu v. Metro Government (6th Cir. 1999), 1999 U.S. App. LEXIS 535; Threesome Entertainment v. Strittmather (N.D. Ohio 1998), 4 F.Supp.2d 710; J.L. Spoons, Inc. v. Township of Brunswick (N.D. Ohio 1999), 49 F. Supp.2d 1032; Triplett Grille, Inc. v. Township of Akron (6th Cir. 1994), 40 F.3d 129; Nightclubs, Inc. v. Township of Paducah (6th Cir. 2000), 202 F.3d 884; O'Connor v. Township and County of Denver (l0th Cir. 1990), 894 F.2d 1210; Deja Vu of Nashville, Inc., et al. v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County (6th Cir. 2001), 2001 U.S. App. LEXIS 26007; State of Ohio ex rei. Rothal v. Smith (Ohio C.P. 2002), Summit C.P. No. CV 01094594; Z.J. Gifts D-2, L.L. C. v. Township of Aurora (1Oth Cir. 1998), 136 F.3d 683; Connection Distrib. Co. v. Reno (6th Cir. 1998), 154 F.3d 281; Sundance Assocs. v. Reno (lOth Cir. 1998), 139 F.3d 804; American Librwy Association v. Reno (D.C. Cir. 1994), 33 F.3d 78; American Target Advertising, Inc. v. Giani (l0th Cir. 2000), 199 F.3d 1241; and other cases and on reports of secondary effects occurring in and around adult entertainment establishments in 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 Township, 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 Township, 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); findings from the Report of the Attorney General's Working Group On The Regulation Of Sexually Oriented Businesses (June 6, 1989, State of Minnesota); and on testimony to Congress in 136 Cong. Rec. S. 8987; 135 Cong. Rec. S. 14519; 135 Cong. Rec. S. 5636, 134 Cong. Rec. E. 3750; and also on findings from the paper entitled "Stripclubs According to Strippers: Exposing Workplace Sexual Violence," by Kelly Holsopple, Program Director, Freedom and Justice Center for Prostitution Resources, Minneapolis, Minnesota; and from "Sexually Oriented Businesses: An Insider's View," by David Shennan, presented to the Michigan House Committee on Ethics and Constitutional Law, Jan. 12, 2000; and from various other police reports, testimony, newspaper reports, and other documentary evidence), and subsequent findings in Sensations, Inc. v. City of Grand Rapids, Michigan Decency Action Council (6th Cir. 2008), 526 F.3d 291; 729, Inc. v. Kenton County Fiscal Court (6th Cir. 2008), 515 F.3d 485; and Andy's Rest. & Lounge, Inc. v. City of Gwy (7th Cir. 2006), 466 F.3d 550, and the Sunbury Village Council's independent review of the same) the Sunbury Village Council finds:
(1) Adult entertainment establishments lend themselves to ancillary unlawful and unhealthy activities that are presently uncontrolled by the operators of the establishments.
(2) Certain employees of adult entertainment establishments, as defined in this chapter as adult theaters and cabarets, engage in a 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 adult entertainment establishments, especially those that provide private or semiprivate booths or cubicles for viewing films, videos, or live sex shows. The “couch dances” or “lap dances”that frequently occur in adult entertainment establishments featuring live nude or seminude dancers constitute or may constitute the offense of “engaging in prostitution” under Section 2907.25 of the Ohio Revised Code.
(4) Offering and providing private or semi-private booths or cubicles encourages such activities, which creates unhealthy conditions.
(5) Persons frequent certain adult theaters, adult arcades, and other adult entertainment establishments for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity within the premises of those adult entertainment establishments.
(6) Numerous 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 salmonella, campylobacter and shigella infections, chlamydial, myoplasmal and ureoplasmal infections, trichomoniasis, and chancroid.
(7) Since 1981 and to the present, there has been an increasing cumulative number of reported cases of AIDS caused b the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the United States; 600 in 1982, 2,200 in 1983, 4,600 in 1984, 8,555 in 1985, and 253,448 through December 31, 1992.
(8) A total of 10,255 AIDS cases had been reported in Ohio as of January 1999. Ohio has required HIV case reporting since 1990, and the reported information shows 7,969 people living with (HIV) (4,213) and (AIDS) (3,756) in the State.
(9) Since 1981 and to the present, there have been an increasing cumulative number of persons testing positive for the HIV antibody test in Ohio.
(10) The number of cases of early (less than one year) syphilis in the United States reported annually has risen. 33,613 cases were reported in 1982, and 45,200 cases were reported through November 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, and 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.
(14) Sanitary conditions in some adult entertainment establishments 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) The findings noted in divisions (c)(1) to (14) of this section raise substantial governmental concerns.
(16) Adult entertainment establishments have operational characteristics that require or mandate subject them to reasonable government regulation in order to protect those substantial governmental concerns.
(17) The enactment of this chapter will promote the general welfare, health, morals, and safety of the citizens of the Village of Sunbury.
(Ord. 2011-17. Passed 7-6-11.)