New adult-oriented businesses operating in the city limits of Terre Haute would have to obtain a special zoning classification and a business permit under a proposed new city ordinance, according to a published report.
Terre Haute City Councilman Ryan Cummins, R-1st, is introducing the ordinance aimed at preventing “harmful effects upon minors,” the Tribune-Star reported.
“It addresses potential harmful effects, directly and indirectly to children, such as being exposed [to nudity] involuntarily because they walk down the street from school to home or to daycare,” Cummins told the newspaper, “and harmful effects that have been part of court cases related to adult-orientated businesses by signage or what is seen or able to be seen.”
The city’s legal department and Cummins have reviewed findings and studies from several communities, such as Phoenix, Los Angeles, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Beaumont, Texas, and Indianapolis, as well as an ordinance adopted in 1996 by Evansville, according to the story.
Under the proposed ordinance, an adult-orientated business would first obtain a variance as a special use in certain zoning classifications, which includes some commercial areas and in light industrial areas, the report said.
To obtain the special use, a business must not locate within 1,000 feet of a residential zoning area; be at least 500 feet away from any religious institution and private or public school containing grades K to 12; be at least 500 feet away from any city park; be 500 feet away from any child care/daycare facility; and be 500 feet away from any other adult-orientated business.
A permit also would have to be obtained from the Terre Haute Board of Public Works and Safety, according to the proposed ordinance, the newspaper reported. There is no fee for the permit, but it is not transferable to another business or business location, according to the story.
Adult-oriented businesses, under the proposed ordinance, are adult arcade; adult bookstore/novelty store/video store; adult cabaret; adult “juice” bar, which is a business that does not serve alcoholic beverages; adult motion picture theater; adult theater; nude model studio; peep show facility; and sexual encounter center, which includes wrestling or tumbling of people in a state of nudity.
