The Bethlehem Planning Commission is considering this week a measure aimed at regulating adult businesses in response to the proposed Sands casino to be built in the city’s South Side.
The commission said it will consider the proposal along with changes to the existing zoning laws in order to allow gambling while preventing an influx of adult businesses cropping up around the casino, according to the Morning Call.
Mayor John Callahan said the city needed to revisit its adult business regulations while it considers a new zoning law for the casino. He felt there were some loopholes in current regulations for adult businesses.
The proposed measure would prohibit adult businesses, pawn shops and check-cashing locations from opening within the BethWorks Now industrial redevelopment zone where the Sands would be located. It also would bar new adult businesses, pawn shops and check cashing stores from opening within 5,000 feet of the casino, or within 1,000 feet of other such businesses.
Officials say the law would also restrict adult businesses, such as massage parlors, adult bookstores and similar shops, to at least 1,000 feet from schools and residential zones, and within 500 feet from churches and temples, day care centers, nursery schools and other public places.
The proposal would also forbid lap dances by exotic dancers, forcing them to stay at least three feet away from customers.
Adult businesses already in the city would be allowed to continue to operate, said Darlene Heller, Bethlehem's director of planning and zoning. But new adult businesses would be restricted to the city's heavy industrial zone in the former Bethlehem Steel land located away from the BethWorks Now industrial redevelopment zone.
