§ 29-201. Purpose and findings.

(a)

Purpose. It is the purpose of this article to regulate sexually oriented businesses in order to promote the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of the citizens of the city, and to establish reasonable and uniform regulations to prevent the deleterious location and concentration of sexually oriented businesses within the city. The provisions of this article have neither the purpose nor effect of imposing a limitation or restriction on the content of any communicative materials, including sexually oriented materials. Similarly, it is not the intent nor effect of this article to restrict or deny access by adults to sexually oriented materials protected by the First Amendment, or to deny access by the distributors and exhibitors of sexually oriented entertainment to their intended market. Neither is it the intent nor effect of this article to condone or legitimize the distribution of obscene material.

(b)

Findings. Based on evidence concerning the adverse secondary effects of adult uses on the community presented in hearings and in reports made available to the council, and on findings incorporated in the cases of City of Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc., 475 U.S. 41 (1986), Young v. American Mini Theatres, 426 U.S. 50 (1976), Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc., 501 U.S. 560 (1991), and City of Erie v. Pap's A.M., 120 S.Ct. 1382 (2000), and on studies in other communities including, but not limited to, Phoenix, Arizona; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Houston, Texas; Indianapolis, Indiana; Amarillo, Texas; Garden Grove, California; Los Angeles, California; Whittier, California; Austin, Texas; Seattle, Washington; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Cleveland, Ohio; and Beaumont, Texas; and also on findings from the Report of the Attorney General's Working Group On The Regulation Of Sexually Oriented Businesses, (June 6, 1989, State of Minnesota), the council finds:

(1)

Sexually oriented businesses lend themselves to ancillary unlawful and unhealthy activities that are presently uncontrolled by the operators of the establishments. Further, there is presently no mechanism to make the owners of these establishments responsible for the activities that occur on their premises.

(2)

Certain employees of sexually oriented businesses defined in this article as adult theatres and cabarets engage in higher incidence of certain types of illicit sexual behavior than employees of other establishments.

(3)

Sexual acts, including masturbation, and oral and anal sex, occur at sexually oriented businesses, especially those which provide private or semi-private booths or cubicles for viewing films, videos, or live sex shows.

(4)

Offering and providing such space encourages such activities, which creates unhealthy conditions.

(5)

Persons frequent certain adult theatres, adult arcades, and other sexually oriented businesses for the purpose of engaging in sex within the premises of such sexually oriented businesses.

(6)

At least fifty (50) communicable diseases may be spread by activities occurring in sexually oriented businesses, including, but not limited to, syphilis, gonorrhea, human immunodeficiency virus infection (HIV-AIDS), genital herpes, hepatitis B, Non-A, Non-B amebiasis, salmonella infections and shigella infections.

(7)

Since 1981 and to the present, there has been an increasing cumulative number of reported cases of AIDS caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the United States—Six hundred (600) in 1982; two thousand two hundred (2,200) in 1983; four thousand six hundred (4,600) in 1984; eight thousand five hundred fifty-five (8,555) in 1985; two hundred fifty-three thousand four hundred forty-eight (253,448) in 1992; and five hundred seventy-three thousand eight hundred (573,800) through June 1996.

(8)

As of June, 2000, there have been two thousand eight hundred sixty-five (2,865) reported cases of AIDS in the State of Arkansas.

(9)

Since 1981 and to the present, there have been an increasing cumulative number of persons testing positive for the HIV antibody test in Arkansas, four thousand seven hundred fifty-six (4,756).

(10)

The number of cases of early (less than one (1) year) syphilis in the United States reported annually has risen, with thirty-three thousand six hundred thirteen (33,613) cases reported in 1982 and forty-five thousand two hundred (45,200) through November of 1990.

(11)

The number of cases of gonorrhea in the United States reported annually remains at a high level, with over one-half million (500,000) cases being reported in 1990.

(12)

The Surgeon General of the United States in his report of October 22, 1986, has advised the American public that AIDS and HIV infection may be transmitted through sexual contact, intravenous drug abuse, exposure to infected blood and blood components, and from an infected mother to her newborn.

(13)

According to the best scientific evidence, AIDS and HIV infection, as well as syphilis and gonorrhea, are principally transmitted by sexual acts.

(14)

Sanitary conditions in some sexually oriented businesses are unhealthy, in part, because the activities conducted there are unhealthy, and, in part, because of the unregulated nature of the activities and the failure of the owners and the operators of the facilities to self-regulate those activities and maintain those facilities.

(15)

Numerous studies and reports have determined that semen is found in the areas of sexually oriented businesses where persons view "adult" oriented films.

(16)

The findings noted in paragraphs number (1) through (15) raise substantial governmental concerns.

(17)

Sexually oriented businesses have operational characteristics which should be reasonably regulated in order to protect those substantial governmental concerns.

(18)

A reasonable licensing procedure is an appropriate mechanism to place the burden of that reasonable regulation on the owners and the operators of the sexually oriented businesses. Further, such a licensing procedure will place a heretofore nonexistent incentive on the operators to see that the sexually oriented business is run in a manner consistent with the health, safety and welfare of its patrons and employees, as well as the citizens of the city. It is appropriate to require reasonable assurances that the licensee is the actual operator of the sexually oriented business, fully in possession and control of the premises and activities occurring therein.

(19)

Removal of doors on adult booths and requiring sufficient lighting on premises with adult booths advances a substantial governmental interest in curbing the illegal and unsanitary sexual activity occurring in adult theatres.

(20)

Requiring licensees of sexually oriented businesses to keep information regarding current employees and certain past employees will help reduce the incidence of certain types of criminal behavior by facilitating the identification of potential witnesses or suspects and by preventing minors from working in such establishments.

(21)

The disclosure of certain information by those persons ultimately responsible for the day-to-day operation and maintenance of the sexually oriented business, where such information is substantially related to the significant governmental interest in the operation of such uses, will aid in preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

(22)

It is desirable in the prevention of the spread of communicable diseases to obtain a limited amount of information regarding certain employees who may engage in the conduct which this article is designed to prevent or who are likely to be witnesses to such activity.

(23)

The fact that an applicant for an adult use license has been convicted of a sexually related crime leads to the rational assumption that the applicant may engage in that conduct in contravention of this article.

(24)

The barring of such individuals from the management of adult uses for a period of years serves as a deterrent to and prevents conduct which leads to the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases.

(25)

The general welfare, health, morals and safety of the citizens of the city will be promoted by the enactment of this article.

(Ord. No. 5923, § I, 12-20-00)