[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Meeting of the Town of Old Saybrook 6-17-1993
by Ord. No. 72. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Adult entertainment businesses as special exception — See Ch. 303, § 303-27.
This chapter shall be known as the "Adult-Oriented Business Ordinance
for the Town of Old Saybrook."
The Town Meeting of the Town of Old Saybrook, Connecticut finds:
A.
Adult-oriented establishments located in the Town of
Old Saybrook require special supervision from the Town's public safety
agencies in order to protect and preserve the health, safety and welfare of
the patrons of such establishments, as well as the health, safety and welfare
of the Town's citizens.
B.
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
adult-oriented establishments, especially those which provide closed booths,
cubicles, studies and rooms for the private viewing of so-called adult motion
pictures and/or video tapes and/or live entertainment; and
(2)
Persons under the age of 18 may be attracted to adult-oriented
establishments and seek to enter or loiter about them without the knowledge
or permission of their parents or guardians; and
(3)
Closed booths, cubicles, studios and rooms within adult-oriented
establishments have been used by patrons, clients and customers of such adult-oriented
establishments for the purpose of engaging in certain sexual acts; and
(4)
Male and female prostitutes have been known to frequent
such establishments in order to provide sex for hire to the patrons, clients
or customers of such establishments within such booths, cubicles and rooms;
and
(5)
Doors, curtains, blinds and/or other closures installed
in or on the entrances and/or 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 sexual acts therein with prostitutes, thereby promoting and encouraging
prostitution and the commission of sexual acts which cause blood, semen and
urine to be deposited on the floors and/or 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; and
(6)
The reasonable regulation and supervision of such adult-oriented
establishments tends to discourage such sexual acts and prostitution, and
thereby promotes the health, safety and welfare of the patrons, clients and
customers of such establishments.
C.
The continued unregulated operation of adult-oriented establishments including, without limitation, those specifically cited at Subsection B(1) hereof, is and would be detrimental to the general welfare, health and safety of the citizens of Old Saybrook.
D.
The Constitution and laws of the State of Connecticut
grant to the Town powers, especially police power, to enact reasonable legislation
and measures to regulate and supervise adult-oriented establishments as hereinafter
defined in order to protect the public health, safety and welfare.
E.
It is not the intent of the Town Meeting, in enacting
this chapter, to deny to any person rights to speech protected by the United
States and/or State Constitutions, nor is it the intent of the Town Meeting
to impose any additional limitations or restrictions on the contents of any
communicative materials, including sexually oriented films, videotapes, books
and/or other materials. Further, by enacting this chapter, the Town Meeting
does not intend to deny or restrict the rights of any adult to obtain and/or
view any sexually oriented materials protected by the United States and/or
State Constitutions, 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.
For the purpose of this chapter, the words and phrases used herein shall
have the following meanings, unless otherwise clearly indicated by the context:
Includes any amusement machine that is regularly used for presenting
material distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on matter depicting,
describing or relating to specified sexual activities or specified anatomical
areas, as defined below, for observation by patrons therein.
An establishment having any portion of its stock-in-trade in books,
films, video cassettes, or magazines and other periodicals which are distinguished
or characterized by their emphasis on matter depicting, describing or relating
to specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas, provided that
this definition shall not apply to any establishment in which such materials
constitute less than 10% of the value of the inventory of said establishment
and in which the display of such materials does not permit the viewing of
specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas within the establishment.
Any exhibition of any motion pictures, videotapes, live performances,
displays or dances of any type, which have as a significant or substantial
portion of such performances any actual or simulated performance of specified
sexual activities or exhibition and viewing of specified anatomical areas.
An enclosed building with a capacity of less than 50 persons regularly
used for presenting material distinguished or characterized by an emphasis
on matter depicting, describing or relating to specified sexual activities
or specified anatomical areas for observation by patrons therein.
An enclosed building with a capacity of 50 or more persons regularly
used for presenting material distinguished or characterized by an emphasis
on matter depicting, describing or relating to specified sexual activities
or specified anatomical areas, as defined below, for observation by patrons
therein.
Includes, without limitation, adult bookstores, adult motion picture
theaters, adult mini motion-picture theaters, and commercial establishments
containing one or more adult amusement machines. "Adult-oriented establishment"
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 entertainment, when such establishment
is operated or maintained for a profit, direct or indirect.
Includes any machine which upon the payment of a charge or upon the
insertion of a coin, slug, token, plate or disk, may be operated by the public
for use as a game, entertainment or amusement, whether or not registering
a score and whether or not electronically operated.
Any and all persons, including independent contractors, who work
in or at or render any services directly related to the operation of an adult-oriented
establishment.
Any person who provides entertainment within an adult-oriented establishment
as defined in this section, whether or not a fee is charged or accepted for
entertainment and whether or not entertainment is provided as an employee
or an independent contractor.
An employee of the Director of Public Health, the Zoning Enforcement
Officer, the Building Inspector, any officer of the Police Department, the
Fire Marshal, and any person to whom any of those officials or the Board of
Selectmen may delegate the duty to perform functions under this chapter.
Refers to a person under the age of 18 years.
Any person, partnership or corporation operating, conducting or maintaining
an adult-oriented establishment.
Does not include materials depicted in any medical publications or
films, in any bona fide educational publications or films, in any art or photography
publications which devote at least 25% of the lineage of each issue to articles
and advertisements dealing with subjects of art or photography, in any news
periodical which reports or describes current events and which, from time
to time, publishes photographs of nude or seminude persons in connection with
the dissemination of the news, or in publications or films which describe
and report different cultures which, from time to time, publish or show photographs
or depictions of nude or seminude persons when describing cultures in which
nudity or seminudity is indigenous to the population.
The Town Meeting of the Town of Old Saybrook, Connecticut.
A.
No operator or employee of an adult-oriented establishment
shall allow or permit any minor to enter into such establishment or to loiter
upon the grounds and parking lot of such establishment.
B.
Each adult-oriented establishment shall display a sign
outside each entrance bearing the words "Adult-oriented establishment - Persons
under 18 not admitted" in letters two inches high.
C.
No adult-oriented establishment shall be conducted in
such a manner that permits the observation of any material depicting specified
sexual activities or specified anatomical areas from the outside of the building
that houses the adult-oriented establishment.
D.
Every adult-oriented establishment doing business in
the Town on and after the effective date of this chapter shall be well lighted
at all times and be physically arranged in such a manner that the entire interior
portion of the booths, cubicles, rooms or stalls, wherein adult entertainment
is provided, shall be clearly visible from the common areas of the premises.
Visibility into such booths, cubicles, rooms or stalls shall not be blocked
or obscured by doors, curtains, partitions, drapes, or any other obstruction
whatsoever. After the effective date of this chapter, it shall be unlawful
to install enclosed booths, cubicles, rooms or stalls within adult-oriented
establishments for the purpose of viewing adult entertainment.
E.
On and after the effective date of this chapter, the
operator of each adult-oriented establishment shall be responsible for and
shall provide that any room or other area used for the purpose of viewing
adult entertainment shall be well lighted and readily accessible at all times
and shall be continuously open to view in its entirety. The premises shall
be equipped with overhead lighting fixtures of sufficient intensity to illuminate
every place to which patrons are permitted access at an illumination of not
less than 1.0 footcandle as measured at the floor level. It shall be the duty
of the operator and its agents to ensure that the illumination described above
is maintained at all times that any patron is present in the premises.
F.
Every act or omission by an employee constituting a violation
of the provisions of this chapter shall be deemed the act or omission of the
operator if such act or omission occurs either with the the authorization,
knowledge or approval of the operator, or as a result of the operator's
negligent failure to supervise the employee's conduct, and the operator
shall be punishable for such act or omission in the same manner as if the
operator committed the act or caused the omission.
G.
An operator shall be responsible for the conduct of all
employees while on the licensed premises, and any act or omission of any employee
constituting a violation of the provisions of this chapter shall be deemed
the act or omission of the operator for purposes of determining whether the
operator shall be subject to the penalties imposed by this chapter.
H.
All adult-oriented establishments shall be open to inspection
at all reasonable times by inspectors or such other persons as the Town Meeting
may designate.
I.
No adult-oriented establishment shall be permitted on
a site that is less than 500 feet from an area zoned residential. The 500
feet shall be the straight horizontal distance from any part of a building
housing an adult-oriented establishment to any boundary of a zoning district
that is zoned for residential use.
J.
No adult-oriented establishment shall be permitted on
a site that is less that 1,000 feet from an existing adult-oriented establishment.
The 1,000 feet shall be the straight horizontal distance from any part of
a building housing an adult-oriented establishment to any part of the other
building housing an adult-oriented establishment.
K.
No adult-oriented establishment shall be permitted on
a site that is less than 1,000 feet from a preexisting school or place of
worship. The 1,000 feet shall be the straight horizontal distance from any
part of the building housing an adult-oriented establishment to any part of
a building housing a school or place of worship.
A.
Any person, partnership or corporation who
is found to have violated this chapter shall be fined a definite sum not exceeding
$100 for each such violation.
B.
Each violation of this chapter shall be considered a
separate offense, and any violation continuing more than one hour of time
shall be considered a separate offense for each hour of violation.
