YORK COUNTY — A zoning regulation amendment that pertains to sexually-oriented businesses (SOB) was adopted by the York County Board of Supervisors during its January meeting.
Caitlin Aubut, Acting Principal Planner for the York County Planning Division, presented the proposal stating, “This originated from a discussion in the ad hoc home-based business committee that met back in the Fall. Part of that discussion was adult uses in residential districts as home occupations and wanting to prohibit those. Part of the issue is we do not have any regulations for adult uses in the zoning ordinances right now.”
Staff used a two-fold approach to crafting the proposed regulations, explained Aubut, as they looked at zoning regulations used by adjacent localities and analyzed existing locations.
It was noted that the zoning regulations of the City of Williamsburg, James City County, and New Kent do not address this type of business.
In addition to using the data the county collected, the county considered legal issues, including First Amendment rights to citizens that protect free speech and expression. Along with providing content-neutral regulations that must withstand “intermediate scrutiny,” the county provided guidance for clearly defined regulations.
Defining sexually-oriented business in York County as “any premises which the public patronizes or to which members are invited or admitted and which are so physically arranged as to provide booths, cubicles, rooms, compartments or stalls separate from the common areas of the premises for the purpose of viewing adult-oriented motion pictures or wherein an entertainer provides adult entertainment to a member of the public, a patron or a member, when such adult entertainment is held, conducted, operated or maintained for
a profit, directly or indirectly. A sexually-oriented business further includes, without
being limited to, any adult store and adult entertainment studios or any premises that
are physically arranged and used as such, whether advertised or represented as an adult
entertainment studio, adult-oriented motion picture theatre, exotic dance studio, or any
other term of like or similar import.”
The regulation added SOBs to York County’s list of prohibited home occupations and limits land uses to general business, economic opportunity and special use permits (SUP).
Three standards that SOBs would be required to fulfill before obtaining permits include distance, visibility and operation/access.
Distance is defined as a 1,000-foot buffer from a school, daycare or secondary institution and a 500-foot buffer from residential zoned districts, homes, places of worship, parks, time-share motel resort or another SOB.
“Separation requirements are defensible, but they must be reasonable,” Aubut explained.
No adult items may be visible from outside an establishment and approved renderings and signage would be considered during the application process.
The county will limit hours of operation to between 7 a.m. and 2 a.m. for adult entertainment businesses and between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. for adult stores.
Aubut stated the purpose for having these regulations now will “mitigate potential negative impacts with reasonable operating, separation, and visibility requirements.”
Watch the York County Jan. 21 meeting here. Ordinance Number 25-1 can be read in full here.
