After months of public hearings by the Nassau County Commission and the County Planning and Zoning Board, officials here have come up with new zoning ordinances for adult businesses, with plenty of time, place and manner restrictions – but the Commission has finally realized it's too late to close down a business to which it has already given approval: The Adam & Eve Boutique, which opened its doors on Feb. 5.
The new zoning requirements would prevent adult businesses from locating with 2,500 feet of a residence, church, school, pre-school, day-care center, bar or another adult business, and in any case restrict such businesses to areas zoned as "commercial intensive" and "industrial warehouse," though such businesses could apply for conditional use permits outside those areas.
"A setback of 2,500 feet is becoming the standard here in Florida," noted Lawrence G. Walters, attorney for the store. "Jacksonville is considering an ordinance requiring that as well. What they're using is the state statute, that says that adult businesses can't be within 2,500 feet of a public school, and they're starting to extend this to all these other sensitive uses, and it wasn't designed for that, but it's becoming the standard in the industry here in Florida."
According to a report in the Fernandina Beach News-Leader, several residents had complained about the store's proximity to a church and a developmental learning center for preschool-aged children and called for the store's closure, but Nassau County Attorney Michael Mullin told the complainants that there is little the county can do "after the fact" to a business that's already operating other than to regulate it.
"Otherwise you're eliminating a business, and that has legal ramifications," he said. "We have to be careful with any regulation that could potentially force a business to close."
Some of the new regulations would apply to the Adam & Eve store, however: Special licensing of the business and its employees after background checks, plus hours of operation restrictions, as well as restrictions on signage and other business activities in which the store might want to engage. Alcohol service and nudity within the business, for instance, would be forbidden.
"They've already passed the licensing ordinance, and it's nothing that we can't comply with," Walters said. "The hours of operation are in there, and we're okay with them. I think they can be open until midnight. Of course, if a cabaret wanted to locate there, they would probably have a problem with that."
The amendments are expected to be adopted at the May 23 meeting of the Nassau County Commission.
"We've discussed at length the impact of the ordinances with the city attorney and what would happen if they tried to put us out of business," Walters explained, "and I think, ultimately, cooler heads prevailed, even though there was a strong public outcry for closing down this business. The protests are continuing and the counter-protests are continuing. This is really the frontlines of the culture war. Any time the protesters are out there, there's counter-protesters who pick up their signs and want to drive out the Religious Right, and 'Stay out of my bedroom', 'Don't tell me what to read' and all that kind of stuff."
"It's a really interesting commentary on the culture in general. There are people who go into the store and tell the owners regularly that they're buying something just to spite the protesters; that they didn't really want any of this stuff, they don't usually go in these places, but they're tired of these people telling us what to do, so they're patronizing the store just to spite the protesters. So business is up like 300 percent when the protesters are out there."
"It looks like the county is going to do the right thing now," Walters said. "There is a final vote on May 23, where the zoning committee recommendation will be potentially accepted or rejected, but it looks like it will be approved on that date."
