Adult video stores, arcades, bookstores, nightclubs, escort agencies and other sex-related businesses are going under tight leashes and wide boundaries, as passed by the City Council here.
The new rules block such businesses from opening or operating within a thousand feet of each other as well as of schools, churches, and other areas where families and children especially are likely to congregate. Council members tell the Spokesman Review they wanted such strict guidelines to discourage such businesses from coming at all.
The rules also require annual licenses for the businesses and their workers, plus color photographs of applicants, criminal records and fingerprints if any, home and business addresses, and phone numbers. A license requires a $300 application fee; if approved, the fee for the license itself is another $150, with worker licenses $100 a year.
And the rules also ban nudity, regulate lighting, a distance of at least ten feet between dancers and customers at exotic dance clubs, plus limits on the businesses' operations.
