WORLDWIDE – In the United States and around the globe, local governments are enacting stricter regulations on adult-oriented businesses.
—In the Philadelphia suburb of Doylestown Township, the city council is considering an ordinance that would require adult businesses to maintain a distance of 400 feet from schools and parks and 2,000 feet from each other, leaving just one parcel of land in the entire town where a novelty shop could be established. Furthermore, businesses would be prohibited from displaying sexually oriented material where it could be viewed from the outside; they would be required to post signs informing customers that the store carried adult materials; and they would be forced to close between 1:00 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. on Saturdays and 1:00 a.m. and noon on Sundays. The reason for the sudden interest in these rules? Supervisor Chairwoman Barbara Lyons said the township must create standards for all types of businesses in its zoning ordinance "because if we don't, they can break our ordinance and put one wherever they want." Lyons failed to acknowledge that no such ordinance currently exists, meaning any new sex-based businesses would not, in fact, be violating township regulations.
Source: The Intelligencer
—Commissioners in Sweetwater County, Wyoming approved rules restricting the location and operation of adult-oriented businesses. Confining such establishments to general commercial and light industrial districts, the new rule effectively prevents sex-based shops from operating on the heavily trafficked interstate between the county's two largest cities. In addition to the usual distance regulations, Sweetwater County also approved a law that adult businesses cannot attach signs to vehicles parked on public—or even private—property. Might that be an abridgement of free speech? "We're not stating you can't show adult films," says city planner Eric Bingham. "We're just setting out the time, place and manner you can do that." Additionally, the new commissioner who made the motion to adopt the ordinances was hailed by a fellow commissioner as going "down in history" for his work.
Source: Casper Star-Tribune
—And in Wisbech, England, Parliament member Malcolm Moss urged city planners to command the removal of a roadside sign advertising local adult store Kiss Kiss. His rationale for objecting to the sign? "I have tried for years to get brown tourist signs erected in various parts of the constituency to highlight the proximity of various visitor locations," Moss says. "I can't think of anything more distracting than the pink sign from Kiss Kiss." The sign in question is a text-only edifice reading simply "Kiss Kiss Lingerie, Licenced Adult Superstore."
Source: The Wisbech Standard
