The Common Council of the City of Middletown finds as follows:
A.
The operation of sexually oriented businesses in the City requires special regulation and supervision by the City to protect, preserve and promote the health, safety and welfare of the patrons of such businesses, as well as the health, safety and welfare of the City's residents. Further, protecting order and morality, preserving the character and preventing the deterioration of the City's neighborhoods, promoting retail trade, maintaining property values, and ensuring sanitary and safe public places are desirable objectives of the community and its leaders.
B.
The Common Council has reviewed the following materials and information regarding sexually oriented businesses:
(1)
Virginia Adult Use Study dated March 1996, published by the Newport News Department of Planning and Development in the Newport News, Virginia.
(2)
A study called "Adult Entertainment Businesses in Indianapolis" dated February 1984, which was conducted by the Department of Metropolitan Development, Division of Planning.
(3)
A study called "Adult Entertainment Businesses in Oklahoma City: A survey of Real Estate Appraisers" dated March 3, 1986, which was conducted by the City of Oklahoma City Community Development Department.
(4)
City of Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc. et al., 475 US 41, 106 S. Ct. 925 (1986).
(5)
Police records from the Orange Police Department relating to calls to the VIP store in Orange, Connecticut in 2003 and 2006.
(6)
Police records from the Berlin Police Department relating to calls to the Twin Spruce Motel located at 697 Berlin Turnpike.
(7)
Police records from the Hartford Police Department relating to calls to the VIP store in Hartford, Connecticut in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
(8)
Expert opinion testimony as set forth in the Expert Witness Disclosures in the case of Ten's Cabaret, Ltd. v. City of New York et al., Index No. 121197/02, Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of New York, dated March, 2008.
(9)
Survey of Texas Appraisers "Secondary Effects of Sexually Oriented Businesses on Market Values" by Connie B. Cooper, FAICP, Eric Damian Kelly, Ph. D., FAIC, and "Crime Related Secondary Effects-Secondary Effects of Off-Site Sexually Oriented Businesses" by Richard McCleary, Ph.D. dated June 2008.
(10)
"Men's Behavior Toward Women After Viewing Sexually Explicit Films: Degradation Makes a Difference," Mulac, Jansma and Linz; Communication Monographs, Vol. 69, No. 4, December 2002, pp. 311-328.
(11)
"Crime Risk in the Vicinity of a Sexually Oriented Business. A Report to the Centralia City Attorney's Office" by Richard McCleary, Ph.D. dated February 28, 2004.
(12)
"Do 'Off Site' Adult Businesses Have Secondary Effects? Legal Doctrine, Social Theory, and Empirical Evidence," McCleary and Weinstein, November 14, 2007.
(13)
"Men's Interaction with Woman After Viewing Sexually Explicit Films: Does Degradation Make a Difference?" Jansma, Linz, Mulac and Imrich, Communication Monographs, Volume 64, March 1997.
(14)
Selected Craigslist postings in 2007 and 2008.
(15)
City of Milford Adult Use Ordinance.
C.
Statistics and studies performed by a substantial number of cities and towns in the United States indicate that:
(1)
Large numbers of persons, primarily male, frequent such sexually oriented businesses, especially those which provide closed booths, cubicles, studios and rooms for the private viewing of so-called "adult" motion pictures, videotapes or live entertainment.
(2)
Such closed booths, cubicles, studios and rooms have been used by patrons, clients or customers of such sexually oriented businesses for the purpose of engaging in specified sexual activities.
(3)
Male and female prostitutes have been known to frequent such businesses in order to provide sex for hire to the patrons, clients or customers of such businesses within such booths, cubicles, studios and rooms.
(4)
Doors, curtains, blinds and other closures installed in or on the entrances and exits of such booths, cubicles, studios and rooms which are closed while such booths, cubicles, studios and rooms are in use encourage patrons using such booths, cubicles, studios and rooms to engage in specified sexual activities therein with prostitutes, other persons or by themselves, thereby promoting and encouraging prostitution and the commission of specified sexual activities which cause blood, semen, urine or other bodily secretions to be deposited on the floors and walls of such booths, cubicles, studios and rooms, which deposits could prove detrimental to the health and safety of other persons who may come into contact with such deposits.
(5)
Booths, cubicles, studios and rooms that are closed while they are in use often contain holes that have been cut or smashed out of the walls or other partitioning material. These holes permit the inhabitant of one booth, cubicle, studio or room to engage in specified sexual activities with the inhabitant of the adjoining booth, cubicle, studio or room. These holes promote and encourage specified sexual acts to occur between persons anonymously. Anonymous sexual contact poses a higher risk of spread of communicable diseases, including the AIDS virus, Hepatitis B and other sexually transmitted diseases. Further, the existence of such holes in booths, cubicles, studios and rooms at sexually oriented businesses provides an increased risk that blood, semen, urine or other bodily secretions will be deposited on the floors and walls of such booths, cubicles, studios and rooms, which deposits could prove detrimental to the health and safety of other persons who may come into contact with such deposits.
(6)
Specified sexual activities often occur at unregulated sexually oriented businesses that provide live adult entertainment. Specified sexual activities include sexual physical contact between employees and patrons of sexually oriented businesses and specifically include "lap dancing" or manual or oral touching or fondling of specified anatomical areas, whether clothed or unclothed. Such casual sexual physical contact between strangers may result in the transmission of communicable diseases, which would be detrimental to the health of the patrons and employees of such sexually oriented businesses.
(7)
The unregulated operation of sexually oriented businesses, including off-site adult businesses like adult bookstores, adult video stores and adult novelty stores, is associated with an increase in the incidence of sex-related crimes and other crimes and also has a disruptive effect on the surrounding neighborhood by causing excessive noise, parking problems, the presence of discarded sexually oriented material on residential lawns, and the performance of sexual acts in public places, as well as causing a deleterious effect on surrounding businesses and decrease in the value of surrounding property.
(8)
Sexually oriented businesses that operate in close proximity to each other further contribute to an increase in crime, lower property values, blight and the downgrading of the quality of life and value of property in the adjacent area, and sexually oriented businesses that operate within a short distance of schools, churches, parks, libraries and other public facilities negatively impact such places and have an adverse effect upon persons, particularly children, walking to and from such places.
(9)
The reasonable regulation and supervision of such sexually oriented businesses tends to discourage prostitution, other sex-related crimes, anonymous and high-risk sexual contact and unsanitary sexual activity, excessive noise and property devaluement, thereby decreasing the incidences of communicable diseases and sex-related crimes, all thereby promoting and protecting the health, safety and welfare of the employees and the members of the public who patronize such businesses and protecting the health, safety and property interests of a city and its residents.
(10)
Location and zoning regulations alone do not adequately protect the public health, safety and welfare, and thus certain requirements with respect to the ownership, employees, facility, operation, advertising, hours of business and other aspects of the sexually oriented business are in the public interest.
D.
The continued unregulated operation of such sexually oriented businesses is and would be detrimental to the health, safety and general welfare of the residents of the City.
E.
The Constitution and laws of the state grant to the City powers, especially the police power, to enact reasonable legislation and measures to regulate and supervise sexually oriented businesses in order to protect the public health, safety and welfare.
F.
It is the purpose and intent of the Common Council, in enacting this article, to regulate sexually oriented businesses to promote the health, safety and general welfare of the residents of the City and to establish reasonable and uniform regulations of such businesses in order to reduce or eliminate the adverse secondary effects of such sexually oriented businesses, protect residents from increased crime, preserve the quality of life, preserve the property values and the character of surrounding neighborhoods and businesses, deter the spread of blight, and protect against the threat to public health from the spread of communicable and social diseases.
G.
It is not the intent of the Common Council, in enacting this article, to deny to any person rights to speech protected by the United States or State Constitution, nor is it the intent of the Council to impose any additional limitations or restrictions on the content of any communicative materials including sexually oriented films, videotapes, books or other materials. Further, by enacting this article, the Council does not intend to deny or restrict the constitutionally protected rights of any adult to obtain or view any sexually oriented materials under the United States or State constitution, nor does it intend to restrict or deny any constitutionally protected rights that distributors or exhibitors of such sexually oriented materials may have to sell, distribute or exhibit such materials.