Mass. City Approves Adult Business Limits

The city council has approved three zoning amendments aimed at adult businesses that include a ban on private viewing booths.

By a 6-3 vote, council members passed the measure that would prohibit private viewing booths for “sexually-explicit material,” in adult stores as well as limit the display area for adult materials to 1,000 square feet and a ban on the display of graphic content on store signs, The Republican reported.

The vote came without discussion other than comments from Councilor Paul D. Spector who said he would not support the amendments because they contained language alluding to the negative secondary effects of adult material.

Leslie S. Rich, a lawyer for Capital Video Inc. which plans to open an adult store in the city, said the measure would not stop his client’s business plans.

“The position of the company is that the ordinances are really a sham,” he said.

“It’s a cover-up to dissuade Capital Video from coming to this particular location.”

Although he did not speak at the meeting, Rich said in an open letter to Mayor Mary Claire Higgins that the store would be a “good neighbor” and upscale and that it would have a focus on couples and women. He compared the shop’s design to those of Victoria’s Secret stores with “pleasant colors, music, carpeting.”

The proposed store has been at the center of controversy since it was first proposed earlier this year, with some residents taking an active role in pressuring the council to block the store from opening.