The purpose of this chapter is to promote the
health, safety, morals and general welfare of the citizens of the
Town of Geneva, New York and to establish reasonable and uniform regulations
regarding the location and concentration of sexually oriented businesses
within the Town of Geneva, New York. It is not the intent of this
chapter to impose a limitation or restriction on the content of any
communicative materials, including sexually oriented materials. It
is not the intent of this chapter to impose any restriction by any
adult to access of sexually oriented materials protected by the First
Amendment of the United States Constitution or Article 6 of the New
York State Constitution nor to deny access by the distributors and
exhibitors of sexually oriented entertainment to their intended market;
neither is it the intent nor the effect of this chapter to condone
or legitimize the distribution or dissemination of obscene materials.
The words and phrases set forth below shall
have the meaning respectively ascribed to them:
ADULT ARCADE
Any place to which the public is permitted or invited or
in which coin-operated or slug-operated or electronically, electrically
or mechanically controlled still or motion-picture machines, projectors,
or other image-producing devices are maintained to show images to
an individual or individuals, and where the image is so displayed,
distinguished or characterized by the depicting or describing of specified
sexual activities or specified anatomical areas.
ADULT RETAIL STORE
A commercial establishment having a substantial or significant
portion of its stock-in-trade, including but not limited to books,
magazines, periodicals, visual representations or writings, photographs,
videotapes, computer-generated images, devices or substances intended
to be used for sexual stimulation or material, distinguished or characterized
by emphasis on matter depicting, describing or related to specified
anatomical areas or to specified sexual activities or an establishment
with a segment or section devoted to the sale or display of such materials
or which is used for the dissemination of such material for consideration
by way of broadcast by radio, television telephone, internet or computer-generated
images or by means of other electronic-powered devices. A commercial
establishment may have other principal business purposes that do not
involve the offering for sale or rental of materials depicting or
describing specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas
and still be defined as an adult retail store hereunder. Such other
business purposes will not serve to exempt such commercial establishment
from being characterized as an adult retail store so long as one of
its principal business purposes is the offering for sale or rental
for consideration the specified materials which depict or describe
specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas.
ADULT CABARET
A nightclub, bar, restaurant or similar commercial establishment
which regularly features:
A.
Persons who appear in a state of nudity;
B.
Live performances which are characterized by
the exposure of specified anatomical areas or by specified sexual
activities; or
C.
Files, motion pictures, videocassettes, slides,
computer-generated images or other photographic reproductions which
are characterized by the depiction or description of specified sexual
activities or specified anatomical areas.
ADULT MOTEL
A hotel, motel or similar commercial establishment which:
A.
Offers accommodations to the public for any
form of consideration, provides patrons with closed-circuit television
transmissions, films, or motion pictures, videocassettes, slides or
other photographic reproductions which are characterized by the depiction
or description of specified sexual activities or specified anatomical
areas;
B.
Offers a sleeping room for rent for a period
of time that is less than 10 hours; or
C.
Allows a tenant or occupant of the sleeping
room to sublet the room for a period of time that is less than 10
hours.
ADULT MOTION-PICTURE THEATER
A commercial establishment where, for any form of consideration,
films, motion pictures, videocassettes, slides or similar graphic
reproductions are displayed, which are characterized by the depiction
or description of specified sexual activities or specified anatomical
areas.
ADULT THEATER
A theater, concert hall, auditorium or similar commercial
establishment which regularly features persons who appear in a state
of nudity or live performances which are characterized by the depiction
or description of specified sexual activities or exposure of specified
anatomical areas.
AUDIENCE
One or more persons who are permitted to view a performance
for valuable consideration of, in or from a public place.
DISPLAY PUBLICLY
The exposing, placing, posting, exhibiting or, in any other
fashion, displaying in any location, whether public or private, material
or a performance in such manner that it may be readily seen and its
contents or character distinguished by normal unaided vision viewing
it from a public place or vehicle.
DISSEMINATE
To manufacture, issue, publish, sell, lend, distribute, transmit,
broadcast, exhibit or present materials or to offer or agree to do
the same or to have in one's possession with intent to do the same.
ESCORT
A person who, for consideration, agrees or offers to act
as a companion, guide or date for any person or who agrees or offers
to privately model lingerie or privately perform a striptease for
another person.
ESCORT AGENCY
person or business association who or which furnishes, offers
to furnish or advertises to furnish escorts as one of its primary
business purposes for a fee, tip or other consideration.
ESTABLISHMENT
Includes any of the following:
A.
The opening or commencement of any sexually
oriented business as a new business;
B.
The conversion of an existing business, whether
or not a sexually oriented business, to any sexually oriented business;
C.
The addition of any sexually oriented business
to any other existing sexually oriented business; or
D.
The relocation of any sexually oriented business.
NUDE MODEL STUDIO
Any place where a person who appears in a state of nudity
or who displays specified anatomical areas is provided to be observed,
sketched, drawn, painted, sculptured, photographed or similarly depicted
by other persons who pay money or any form of consideration. It is
not intended to include in this definition a model studio operated
by an accredited school, college or university if the same is operated
as part of the regular art curriculum of said school, college or university.
NUDITY
Uncovered or less than opaquely covered post-pubertal human
genitals or pubic area, the post-pubertal human female breast below
the point immediately above the areola or the covered human male genitals
in a discernibly turgid state. For the purpose of this definition,
a female breast is considered uncovered if the nipple only or the
nipple and the areola only are covered.
PANDER
Advertising or propagandizing in connection with the sale
of material, the offering of a service or the presentation or exhibition
of a performance by appealing to the prurient interest of potential
customers.
PERFORMANCE
Any live or reproduced exhibition, including but not limited
to any play, motion-picture film, dance or appearance presented to
or performed before an audience.
PUBLIC PLACE OR VEHICLE
Any of the streets, alleys, parks, boulevards, school or
other public property in the Town of Geneva or any dance hall, rental
hall, theater, amusement park, liquor establishment or depot, place
of public accommodation or other private property generally frequented
by the public for the purpose of education, recreation, amusement
entertainment, sport, shopping or travel, or any vehicle for public
transportation, owned or operated by government, either directly or
through a public corporation or authority or owned of operated by
any nongovernmental agency for the use, enjoyment or transportation
of the general public.
SADOMASOCHISTIC ABUSE
Flagellation or torture by or upon a person who is nude or
clad in undergarments or in a sexually revealing or bizarre costume;
or the condition of such person being fettered, bound or otherwise
physically restrained in an apparent act of sexual stimulation or
gratification.
SEXUAL CONDUCT
B.
Sexual intercourse, whether genital-genital,
oral-genital, oral-anal or anal-genital.
C.
Any erotic fondling or touching of any parts
of the covered or uncovered genitals, buttocks, pubic area or breasts
of the female or male.
D.
Actual or simulated display or exhibition of
the human pubic area or genitals or any part thereof.
E.
Sexual excitement, as hereinafter defined.
F.
Sadomasochistic abuse, as hereinbefore defined.
G.
The conduct described in Subsections
A through
C, inclusive is "sexual conduct" whether or not it is engaged in alone or between members of the same sex or between members of the opposite sex or between humans and animals or between humans and inanimate objects.
SEXUAL ENCOUNTER CENTER
A business or commercial enterprise that, as one of its primary
business purposes, offers for any form of consideration:
A.
Physical contact in the form of wrestling or
tumbling between persons of the opposite sex; or
B.
Activities between male and female persons and/or
persons of the same sex when one or more of the persons is in a state
of nudity.
SEXUAL EXCITEMENT
The facial expression, movements, utterances or other responses
of a human male or female, whether alone or with others, whether clothed
or not, who is in an apparent state of sexual stimulation or arousal
or who experiences the physical or sensual reactions of humans engaging
in or witnessing sexual conduct.
SEXUALLY ORIENTED BUSINESS
An adult arcade, adult bookstore, adult cabaret, adult motel,
adult motion-picture theater, adult theater, escort agency, nude model
studio or sexual encounter center or dissemination of sexually related
materials.
SPECIFIED ANATOMICAL AREAS
Human genitals; pubic region; buttocks; female breasts below
a point immediately above the top of the areola.
SPECIFIED SEXUAL ACTIVITIES
Human male genitals in a discernibly turgid state of sexual
stimulation or arousal; acts of human masturbation, sexual intercourse
or sodomy; fondling or other erotic touching of human genitals, pubic
regions, buttocks or female breasts.
Sexually oriented businesses are classified
as follows:
E. Adult motion-picture theaters.
I. Sexual encounter centers.
Sexually oriented businesses shall be conducted
at all times in the following manner; otherwise the business shall
be deemed in violation of the special use permit and shall be subject
to the penalties provided:
A. It shall be conducted in an enclosed building.
B. It shall be conducted in such a manner that, regardless
of location or distance, no one who is passing by or who is at any
point outside of the enclosed building occupied by such a use shall
be able to observe or perceive any performance, conduct, image, printed
matter, visual representation, instrument, device or paraphernalia
displaying, depicting or otherwise presenting any specified anatomical
area or specified sexual activity regulated hereunder, including but
not limited to any sign or advertisement or any window or other opening
permitting the view of the interior of the premises from the exterior
of the premises.
C. It shall not employ loudspeakers or sound equipment
as part of the adult use establishment in such a way as may be audible
or discerned by the public from public or semipublic areas or from
contiguous private property.
D. It shall provide for the parking of vehicles on the
site only during the hours of operation and shall provide for a parking
space for each and every employee, in addition to those parking requirements
specified in the Code of the Town of Geneva, NY.
E. It shall display no more than a single building-mounted
sign and a single pylon sign in conformance with the Code of the Town
of Geneva, NY, that shall identify only the name of the establishment
and shall contain no graphic representation of any material depicting,
describing or relating to specified sexual activities or specified
anatomical areas.
Final approval by the Zoning Board of Appeals
of any special use permit application for sexually oriented businesses
shall only be made contingent upon the applicant also satisfying all
conditions and requirements of approval by the Planning Board of any
site plan application or subdivision approval as provided for from
time to time in the Town Code or the laws of the State of New York
for such a use and upon compliance with the building code of the State
of New York as enforced by the Code Enforcement Officer of the Town
of Geneva.
Whenever it shall become necessary for the Code Enforcement Officer or any officer of the Town of Geneva shall determine that Chapter
53, Adult Uses, of the Geneva Code shall be required to be enforced, the costs incurred by said officer for consultation fees with engineers, attorneys, or other professionals or costs incurred in enforcement of compliance with this Code, including but not limited to the costs of meeting the requirements of Article 6 of the Environmental Conservation Law (SEQR), and it shall be charged to the applicant or owner of the real property and shall be reimbursed by the applicant or owner of the real property before a building permit may be issued or a certificate of occupancy may be issued, and upon failure by the applicant or property owner to make such reimbursement, then said reimbursement costs levied pursuant to this chapter are hereby made a lien on the premises, and if the same are not paid within 30 days after they shall be deemed payable, the same shall be certified to the County Treasurer's office, which shall place the same on the real property tax roll for that year, with interest, and penalties allowed by law, and be collected as other taxes are collected.
If any part or provisions of this chapter or
the application thereof to any person or circumstance be adjudged
invalid by any court of competent jurisdiction, such judgment shall
be confined in its operation to the part or provisions or application
directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall
have been rendered and shall not affect or impair the validity of
the remainder of this chapter or the application thereof to other
persons or circumstances, and the Town Board of the Town of Geneva
hereby declares that it would have passed this chapter or the remainder
thereof had such invalid application or invalid provision been apparent.