DECATUR, Ga.—The Board of Commissioners for DeKalb County, Georgia, north of Atlanta, voted on Tuesday to levy further zoning restrictions on adult entertainment businesses that operate in the unincorporated areas of the county.
Based on the ordinance adopted by the board, adult entertainment businesses will no longer be approved for commercial zones and such establishments will be shifted to industrial districts, reports local news outlet Decaturish.
Rachel Bragg, DeKalb County's deputy director of planning and sustainablility, explained to the commissioners that there were "inconsistencies" in the county's zoning code and in the requirements for adult business licensing. Bragg explained that the primary changes were to establish "consistent definitions" covered by the ordinance.
"This is primarily a cleanup and coordination effort to make sure that we’re using current terminology and applying it consistently throughout the different sections of the county code,” Bragg said during the board meeting.
This is done to prevent so-called "secondary effects" associated with adult businesses. The effects include potential urban blight, prostitution and other crimes.
However, there is no consensus in existing academic literature that adult entertainment businesses operating in local jurisdictions increase or decrease crimes, especially sex-related offenses like sex trafficking.
Because the board adopted the ordinance, it declined to extend its moratorium on new adult entertainment business licenses, which runs out in September. Bragg said that if the changes weren't adopted, she would have pressed the board to extend the moratorium.