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Last updated on Tuesday, July 15, 2014
(BLOOMINGTON) - Businesses such as adult bookstores and cabarets are now limited to where they can locate in Monroe County.
On Friday, the commissioners approved an ordinance that would regulate adult-oriented businesses - like lingerie modeling studios or adult theaters - to about 45 properties in the county, mostly along the Ind. 37 corridor. The ordinance is designed to guide growth and hedge problems around the I-69 corridor.
The Herald Times reports that the adult-oriented business ordinance will regulate the secondary effects these businesses could bring to the area, but cannot ban them outright because that would violate the First Amendment.
Assistant Planning director Jason Eakins says the ordinance divides businesses into nine permitted uses: adult arcade, adult cabaret, adult media store, adult retail store, adult motion picture theater, adult theater, escort agency, lingerie modeling studio and nude or semi-nude model studio. The ordinance also makes distinctions between on-site business, such as a movie theater, where adult entertainment is offered on premises, and off-site business, such as a bookstore, where materials are purchased to take away.
There are buffer requirements for each type of business, but they only would apply to businesses with more than 40 percent of their public area or stock related to adult-oriented items.
Adult on-site businesses may not be within 1,500 feet of another adult on-site business or private or public preschool or K-12 school; 1,000 feet of an adult off-site business; 750 feet of a public park, religious institution, public library, historic district, day care home or day care center; or 500 feet of a residential district.
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