NY Town Seeking to Regulate Where Adult Club Can Operate
by Jody Brown
September 16, 2004
(AgapePress) - A Christian attorney is working with a New York community that is trying to protect itself from the negative effects of a sexually oriented business that wants to open there.Dominique's Showgirls, an adult entertainment club that would feature nude dancers, desires to locate its 200-seat complex in Arcadia, near Newark, just north of Interstate 90 between Syracuse and Rochester. The facility will include video rentals, sexually oriented product sales, and a juice bar featuring a completely nude staff.
Business owner Mike Grande of Rochester told the Finger Lake Times of nearby Geneva that the club will be "very upscale, not a seedy little place with spiral staircases."
But despite Grande's assurances Tuesday night at a town board meeting, the more than 200 people in attendance remained concerned. Their concern was likely raised even further when they heard from attorney Michael DePrimo, senior litigation counsel for the American Family Association's Center for Law & Policy.
The attorney cited studies showing that unregulated adult entertainment is tied to occurrences of sex-related crimes, anonymous sexual encounters, and the spread of communicable diseases. In addition, he reported, nude dancing increased the chances of drug use, sexual assault, and rape.
Grande called those charges "idiocy." And responding to charges that an adult club would have adverse effects on the community, Grande stated the "if women were more intuitive and did some investigation of their own, [they would see] they have a lot better chance losing their husband to another woman at a bar, not at adult entertainment. I'm sure once we open, people will get their misconceptions put to rest."
DePrimo -- at the invitation of town officials and a group that wants to limit where such businesses can be located within the community -- was at the meeting offering legal advice on how ordinances can be modified or added regarding adult entertainment, in hopes the town would "adopt legislation regulating sexually oriented businesses."
According to DePrimo, businesses like Grande's can be regulated through zoning, licensing, and restricting specific types of conduct. And whether public nudity could be banned under state law is an "open question," he said.
"This is a highly technical area fraught with legal landmines [and] difficulties," the attorney explained, adding no laws exist that could prevent Dominique's Showgirls from opening. However, he said, the club could be forced to relocate if such legislation came into existence.
Grande vowed to "stay there and sue" if legislation prevented his club from opening. The town board agreed to meet again later this month to address the possibility of land-use and zoning studies that could be used to fend off challenges to such legislation.
The American Family Association, the parent organization of DePrimo's legal group, offers several resources for communities wanting to regulate sexually oriented businesses, including a model ordinance as well as facts to be considered in developing an ordinance that is both constitutional and effective.
"You can't keep them out," DePrimo said. "All you can do is regulate." But he did offer concerned citizens some hope, explaining they could picket the business on public property and then post in local grocery stores the license plate numbers of cars driven by those patronizing the establishment.
