The Kenton County Fiscal Court unanimously approved an ordinance Tuesday restricting on-premise sexually oriented businesses from opening within 1,000 feet of schools, day-care centers and public recreation facilities.
A recent story in The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that adult-oriented retail businesses, such as bookstores, will have to be at least 500 feet away. That means sexually oriented businesses will be relegated to industrial and commercial zones.
Now each city in Kenton County will consider this ordinance. Erlanger has already adopted it.
Should the cities adopt the ordinance, the story continued, sexually oriented businesses would have some space to locate in the unincorporated county and six cities: Covington, Erlanger, Taylor Mill, Independence, Elsmere and Crestview Hills, county attorney Garry Edmondson said.
The only city that now has adult businesses is Covington.
The regulations are the result of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that communities must provide zones where sexually oriented businesses may locate.
"Obviously, you wouldn't want something like this in the middle of a residential zone or in your downtown business zone," Edmondson told The Cincinnati Enquirer. "It can have adverse secondary effects. You have pawn shops spring up, all types of drunks, all kinds of riffraff. It gets more and more seedy."
Regulating adult businesses could spread to neighboring counties.
Enquirer staff writer Scott Wartman’s story reported that Campbell County might also add requirements to licensing for adult businesses such as strip clubs, County Administrator Robert Horine said.
The proposed ordinance would mirror similar business license regulations passed by the Kenton County Fiscal Court a year ago, he said. The law would stipulate how close to patrons strippers may dance and would impose other restrictions.
Kenton County's ordinance is being challenged in federal court the article reported. The lawsuit questions the legitimacy of the $3,000 license fee and the restrictions on an exotic dancer mingling with the customers.
Campbell County also might consider zoning regulations, Horine said.
"This is the first step that establishes if a sexually oriented business wants to open here, these are the basic requirements to do business," Horine said. "The next question is if they are zoned at a particular location."
Boone County has not taken up the issue, County Attorney J.R. Schrand said.
The new ordinance will protect Kenton County, Edmondson said.
"All you got to do is drive up I-75 and see what happens," Edmondson told Wartman. "... Hamilton County went through this a few years ago where Cincinnati adopted regulations. ... As soon as you get to Warren County, what do you see? A Hustler (store) by the expressway. ... Warren County didn't do anything; Hamilton County did. Hamilton County provides areas for adult businesses, but there are none there."
