[HISTORY: Adopted by the Board of Trustees of the Village of Harriman 9-28-2004
by L.L. No. 5-2004. Amendments noted where applicable.]
It is recognized that buildings and establishments operated as adult
uses have serious objectionable operational characteristics. In order to promote
the health, safety and general welfare of the residents of the Village of
Harriman, this chapter is intended to restrict adult uses to nonresidential
and non- retail business areas of the Village.[1] The Village Board hereby finds that the operational characteristics
of adult uses increase the detrimental impact on a community when such uses
are concentrated; therefore, this chapter is intended to promote the health,
safety and general welfare through a concentration of such uses in certain
areas.
In addition to the general requirements contained in this chapter, an
adult bookstore shall observe the following special requirements:
A.
All materials, devices and novelties shall be so displayed
that they cannot be seen by anyone other than customers who have entered the
licensed premises.
B.
If recordings are offered for sale and customers may
listen to them while on the licensed premises, soundproof booths or rooms
shall be available for use by customers who desire to listen, and each such
booth or room shall have:
(1)
One clear window facing the major portion of the licensed
premises, covering not less than 1/4 of the wall area into which the window
is set, which window shall not be covered or obscured in any manner while
the booth or room is in use.
(2)
Sufficient chairs or couches to accommodate the expected
number of persons who will occupy the booth or room at one time.
(3)
The number of persons who may occupy the booth or room
at one time clearly stated on or near the door to the booth or room, and only
that number of persons shall be permitted.
(4)
The door or doors opening into the booth or room incapable
of being locked or otherwise fastened so that it or they will freely open
from either side.
(5)
All areas where a patron or customer is to be positioned
visible from a continuous main aisle and not obscured by any curtain, door,
wall or other enclosure.
A.
Unlicensed operation. It shall be unlawful for any person
to operate an adult bookstore, adult motion-picture theater, massage establishment
or adult dancing establishment unless such business shall have a currently
valid license therefor under this chapter, which license shall not be under
suspension or permanently or conditionally revoked.
B.
Commercial advertising; license required. Any commercial
establishment that displays within 100 feet of its premises a sign or other
form of advertisement capable of leading a reasonable person to believe that
said establishment engages in an activity required by this chapter to be licensed
shall obtain an adult entertainment license for said activity.
C.
Proscriptions where alcoholic beverages are sold, dispensed
or permitted. No portion of the human genital or pubic region, the cleavage
of the human buttocks or the areola of the human female breast shall be displayed
or exposed on a licensed premises where alcoholic beverages are sold, dispensed
or permitted.
D.
Admission of minors; applicability. It shall be unlawful
for a licensee to admit or to permit the admission of minors within a licensed
premises. This adult entertainment chapter shall not apply to conduct, the
regulation of which has been preempted to the state.
E.
Sale to minors. It shall be unlawful for any person to
sell, barter or give or to offer to sell, barter or give to any minor any
service, material, device or thing sold or offered for sale by an adult bookstore,
adult motion-picture theater, massage establishment or adult dancing establishment.
F.
Responsibility of licensees. No licensee, owner or employer
shall permit, suffer or allow violations of this chapter or illegal acts to
take place on the licensed premises, if the licensee or employee knows or
has reason to know that such violations or illegal acts are taking place.
A.
Adult entertainment permit required. Unless specifically
excluded below, it shall be unlawful for any person to obtain employment in
an establishment licensed under the adult entertainment chapter for any form
of consideration or to exhibit or display specified anatomical areas in an
adult bookstore, massage establishment, adult motion-picture theater or adult
dancing establishment unless and until such person shall have first obtained
an adult entertainment permit or temporary permit from the Village of Harriman.
This section shall not apply to employees engaged exclusively in performing
janitorial or maintenance services.
B.
Qualifications. Employees of a licensee on a licensed
premises shall not be less than eighteen (18) years of age.
C.
Application for and issuance of adult entertainment permit.
(1)
All present and prospective employees of an adult entertainment
establishment shall file an application for an adult entertainment permit
with the Building Official of the Village of Harriman.
(2)
All applications shall be accompanied by a nonrefundable
payment of $50.
(3)
No permit shall be issued when its issuance would violate
a statute, ordinance or law or when an order from a court of law prohibits
the applicant from obtaining an adult entertainment permit in the Village
of Harriman.
Prohibited locations. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter
or any provision of the Code of the Village of Harriman, no person shall cause
or permit the establishment or substantial enlargement of an adult bookstore
or other adult use such as dancing establishment within 1,000 feet of another
such business, within 1,000 feet of any preexisting religious institution
or school, within 1,000 feet of an area zoned for residential use within Harriman
or adjoining municipalities of Monroe and Woodbury or within 500 feet of a
commercial establishment that in any manner sells or dispenses alcohol for
on-premises consumption. "Substantial enlargement" shall mean increasing the
size of the licensed premises by more than 10% of the original licensed premises.
The above distance requirements shall be considered locational rather than
zoning requirements.
Before an adult bookstore or adult entertainment establishment is approved,
the Planning Board shall determine that the creation of the use is in the
public interest and, in making this determination, shall be satisfied that:
A.
The location, size, operating and other characteristics
of the proposed establishment shall be compatible with and shall not adversely
affect the livability or appropriate development of abutting properties and
the surrounding neighborhood.
B.
No adult bookstore or adult entertainment establishment
shall be allowed unless it complies with the distance requirements specified
in this chapter or unless the Planning Board waives these distance requirements
after finding that all appropriate regulations of this chapter will be observed,
that the spirit and intent of this chapter will be observed and that the proposed
use will not be contrary to the public interest or injurious to nearby properties.
C.
Issuance of a permit pursuant to this section shall not
be granted except following a public hearing to be conducted by the Planning
Board on appropriate notice.
D.
A special use permit issued by the Planning Board under
the provisions of this section shall not be transferable
A.
Distance measurements. For the purposes of this chapter,
distance measurements shall be made in a straight line, without regard to
intervening structures or objects, from the nearest part of the portion of
the building or structure used as an adult entertainment establishment to
the nearest property line of the premises of a church, school, public park
or public recreation area or to the nearest boundary of a residential zoning
district.
B.
Nonconforming uses. A person owning or controlling an adult entertainment establishment which, on the effective date of this chapter, does not comply with the distance requirements of § 45-5 shall be subject to the nonconforming use provisions contained in the zoning regulations of the Code of the Village of Harriman.[1]
C.
Residential zoning. In the event that an area is zoned residential for the first time or an area is rezoned for residential use and lies within 1,000 feet of an existing adult entertainment establishment, the adult entertainment establishment shall be considered an existing nonconforming use, as defined in Subsection B hereof, from the effective date of the rezoning ordinance.
D.
Buffer required. Every sexually oriented business shall
be surrounded by a perimeter buffer of at least 50 feet in width, consisting
of plantings, to the satisfaction of the Municipal Planning Board. This subsection
shall not apply to a sexually oriented business already lawfully operating
on the effective date of this chapter.
E.
Sign prohibiting minors required. A sexually oriented
business shall display one exterior sign giving notice that the premises is
off limits to minors.
F.
Observation from public way prohibited. No adult use
shall be conducted in any manner that permits the observation of any material
depicting, describing or relating to specified sexual activities or specified
anatomical areas from any public way or from any property not registered as
an adult use. This provision shall apply to any display, decoration, sign,
show window, screen or other opening.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings
indicated:
An establishment having, as a substantial or significant port on
of its stock-in-trade, books, magazines, other periodicals, films and other
viewing materials which are distinguished or characterized by their emphasis
on matters depicting, describing or relating to specified sexual activities,
sexual conduct or specified anatomical areas, or an establishment in which
a segment or section of the premises is devoted to the sale, rental or display
of such material.
An enclosed building used for presenting material distinguished or
characterized by an emphasis on matters depicting, describing or relating
to specified sexual activities, sexual conduct or specified anatomical areas
for observation by patrons therein.
Shall include, without limitation, adult bookstores, adult motion-picture
theaters, adult mini-motion-picture theaters, and further means any premises
to which the public, patrons or members are invited or admitted and which
are so physically arranged as to provide booths, cubicles, rooms, studios,
compartments or stalls separate from the common areas of the premises for
the purpose of viewing adult-oriented motion pictures or any premises wherein
an entertainer provides adult entertainment to a member of the public, a patron
or a member, when such adult entertainment is held, conducted, operated or
maintained for a profit, direct or indirect. An adult-oriented establishment
further includes, without limitation, any adult entertainment studio or any
premises that are physically arranged and used as such, whether advertised
or represented as an adult entertainment studio, rap studio, exotic dance
studio, encounter studio, sensitivity studio, modeling studio or any other
term of like import.
Any establishment or business involved in the dissemination of material
distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on matter depicting, describing
or relating to specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas,
including but not limited to adult bookstores, adult motion-picture theaters
and adult entertainment cabarets.
Film or films, continuous slides or pictures of any nature in which
any person is shown, depicted or revealed in any act of sexual conduct.
Human masturbation, sexual intercourse or any touching of the genitals,
pubic areas or buttocks of the human male or female or the breasts of the
female, whether alone or between members of the same or opposite sex or between
humans and animals, in an act of apparent sexual stimulation or gratification.
