Adult entertainment ordinance


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15.09.200 Adult Entertainment

A. Purpose: All adult entertainment uses shall comply with the requirements of this Section. The purpose and intent of requiring standards for adult entertainment uses is to mitigate the adverse secondary effects caused by such facilities and to maintain compatibility with other land uses and services. In furtherance of this purpose, this Section is intended to regulate the location of adult entertainment and commercial enterprises in order to promote the health, safety and welfare of all citizens and in order to preserve and protect the quality of life in and around all neighborhoods through effective land use planning and reasonable regulation in light of the findings set forth herein and the facts and evidence contained in the legislative record.

The standards established in this Section shall apply to all adult entertainment uses. Adult entertainment uses are recognized as having objectionable operational characteristics, particularly when they are aggregate din one area. Since these uses have a harmful effect upon adjacent uses, and residential and commercial sues in particular, special regulation of adult uses is necessary to avoid adverse effects arising from adult entertainment businesses so they will not contribute to the blighting or downgrading of the surrounding neighborhood. It is the intent of this Section to allow these uses to exist in a dispersed manner within specific zoning districts.

The standards established in this Section shall not be construed to restrict or prohibit the following activities or products: plays, operas, musicals, or other dramatic works; classes, seminars or lectures for educational or scientific purposes; nudity within a locker room or other similar facility used for changing clothing in connection with athletic or exercise activities; nudity within a hospital, clinic or other similar medical facility for health-related purposes; and all movies and videos that are rated G, PG, PG-13, R and NC-17, by the Motion Picture Association of America.

B. Special Definitions Specific to this Section.

For the purpose of this Section, the following words and phrases shall have the following meanings.

1. Adult Arcade/Viewing Booth means any booth, cubicle, stall, or compartment that is designed, constructed, o used to hold or seat patrons and is used for presenting adult media for observation by patrons therein. This definition does not apply to a theater, movie house, playhouse, or a room or enclosure or portion thereof that contains more than 600 square feet. Those greater than 600 square feet shall be considered an Adult Motion Picture Theater.

2. Adult Cabaret/Dance Hall or Dance Studio means a building or portion of a building regularly featuring dancing or other live entertainment if the dancing or entertainment provided is distinguished or characterized by an emphasis on the exhibition of specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas for observation by patrons therein (YMC Chapter 5.30).

3. Adult Commercial Establishment means any premises on or where adult media or sexually oriented toys or novelties are the majority of articles or items for sale and/or rent. Majority shall be determined to exist when forty percent (40%) or more of the establishment's gross public floor area is devoted to adult media or sexually oriented toys or novelties. Commercial establishments where the sale and/or rent of adult media or sexually oriented boys or novelties do not account for forty percent (40%) or more of the establishment's gross public floor area shall adhere to the standards set forth in section. 15.09.200 (C)(2).

4. Adult Entertainment means any exhibition or dance of any type, pantomime, modeling or any other performance, including motion pictures, which involves the exposure to view any specified anatomical areas or involves any specific sexual activities.

5. Adult Entertainment Uses means any uses on premises to which the adult public, patrons or members are invited or admitted or wherein any employee or other person provides, exhibits or performs adult entertainment or operates an adult commercial establishment, to or for a member of the adult public, a patron or a member, and specifically includes the list below.

a. Adult commercial establishments;

b. Adult motion picture theaters;

c. Adult arcades/viewing booths;

d. Adult cabarets, dance halls and dance studios.

Also refer to specific prohibited uses identified in Section 15.09.200 (E).

6. Adult Media means magazines, books, videotapes, movies, slides, cd-roms or other devices used to record computer images, or other media that are distinguished or characterized by their emphasis on matter depicting, describing, or relating to specified anatomical areas or specified sexual activities.

7. Adult Motion Picture Theatre means an establishment emphasizing or predominantly showing movies that exhibit specified sexual activities.

8. Body Studio means any premises, other than a licensed massage parlor, reducing salon, health spa or public bath house, upon which is furnished, or which is offered to be furnished, for a fee or charge or other like consideration, the opportunity or act of painting, massaging, feeling, handling or touching the unclothed body or any unclothed portion of the body of another person, or to observe, view or photograph any such activity.

9. Church See definition in YMC 15.02.020.

10. Escort and Introductory Service means services provided with the intent to perform prohibited specified sexual activities, specified sexual exhibitions or other activities prohibited in this Section.

11. Massage Parlor means a commercial establishment in which massage or other touching of the human body is provided for a fee and which excludes any person by virtue of age or sex from all or any portion of the premises in which such service is provided.

12. Media means anything printed or written, or any picture, drawing, photograph, motion picture, film, videotape or videotape production or pictorial representation, or any electrical or electronic reproduction of anything that is or may be used as a means of communication. Media includes, but is not limited to, books, newspapers, magazines, movies, videos, sounding recordings, cd-roms, other magnetic media, and undeveloped pictures.

13. Park See definition in YMC 15.02.020.

14. Residential Zoning District means the Suburban Residential (SR); Single-Family Residential (R-1); Two-Family Residential (R-2); and Multi-Family Residential (R-3) zoning districts as defined in YMC Ch. 15.03.

15. School See definition in YMC 15.02.020.

16. Sexually Oriented Toys or Novelties means instruments, devices, or paraphernalia either designed as representations of human genital organs or female breasts, or designed or marketed primarily for use to simulate human genital organs.

17. Specified Anatomical Areas means (1) Less than completely and opaquely covered; human genitals, pubic region, buttock, and female breast below a point immediately above the top of the areola; and (2) human male genitals in a discernibly turgid state, even if completely and opaquely covered.

18. Specified Sexual Activities means human genitals in a state of sexual stimulation or arousal or acts of human masturbation, sexual intercourse, sodomy, or fondling or other erotic touching of human genitals, pubic region, buttock, or female breast.

19. Specified Sexual Exhibitions means any exhibition, performance or dance which is intended to sexually stimulate any member of the public and which is conducted on a regular basis or as a substantial part of the premises activity. This includes, but is not limited to, any such exhibition, performance or dance performed for, arranged with or engage din with fewer than all members of the public on the premises at that time, with separate consideration paid, either directly or indirectly, for such performance, exhibition or dance and which is commonly referred to as table dancing, couch dancing, taxi dancing, lap dancing, private dancing or straddle dancing.

C. Permitted Uses. Adult entertainment uses, and adult commercial establishments shall be permitted subject to the following conditions:

1. Adult entertainment uses shall be considered Class (3) uses, requiring Type (3) review, in and only in the CBD (Central Business District), GC (General Commercial) and M-1 (Light Industrial) zoning districts when applicable development standards of this Section are met:

2. Commercial uses approved for zoning requirements of Chapter 15.04 through 15.08 that sell and/or rent adult media or sexually oriented toys or novelties, but for which that portion of the establishment's gross public floor area devoted to the sale or rent of adult medial or sexually oriented toys or novelties accounts for less than forty percent (40%) of gross public floor area of the commercial use shall:

a. Restrict persons under the age of eighteen (18) from purchasing and/or renting the adult items; and,

b. Contain those adult items in a separate area appropriately sited and signed to restrict access to people under the age of eighteen (18), or behind a counter.

D. Development Standards. The following standards shall apply to proposed adult entertainment uses, and commercial establishments which sell adult media and/or sexually oriented toys or novelties, permitted under this Section:

1. Adult entertainment uses shall adhere to the following standards:

A. Separation Standards

1. The building that contains the adult entertainment use, and the signs relating to the use, shall not be located within five hundred (500) feet of any of the following preexisting uses or previously established districts.

a. The outside boundary of any pracel that contains a public school, private school or day care facility;

b. The outside boundary of any parcel that contains a church or other house of worship;

c. The outside boundary of an existing public park;

d. The outside boundary of any parcel that contains a public library; and,

e. A residential zoning district.

2. The building that contains an adult entertainment use shall not be located within fifteen hundred (1500) feet of a similar adult entertainment use as defined in this Section, where such similar use is located within or outside the City limits.

3. In addition to the general sitescreening requirements of YMC Ch. 15.07, the following requirements shall apply to adult entertainment uses where the adult entertainment use abuts or is located across an alley from another building or licensed business:

a. Barrier buffers shall be installed the full length of property lines where adjacent licensed businesses are already established; and,

b. The buffer shall create a sight-obscuring barrier between the adult entertainment use consisting of a minimum 10-foot-wide planting strip, a view-obscuring fence, and six-foot-tall evergreens located on the property boundary, spaced so that they will grow together within three years.

4. The separation requirements stated in C(1)(a) and (b), above, shall be measured by extending a straight line from the nearest point on the property line of the lot containing the proposed adult entertainment use to the nearest point on the property line of the lot containing the other adult entertainment use, school, daycare, church, public park, or public library.

B. Licensing. In addition to Type 3 review, all adult entertainment uses, with the exception of adult commercial establishments, shall be subject to the licensing requirements of YMC Chapter 5.30.

C. Hours of operation. Any adult entertainment use, as defined in this Section, shall not conduct or operate any business or commercial function on or around their premises between the hours of two a.m., and eight-thirty a.m., of the same day.

D. Sinage. Sinage of adult entertainment uses, as defined in this Section, shall comply with the provisions of YMC Ch. 15.08, Signs, together with the following specific conditions:

a. Each adult entertainment use shall be allowed one (1) on-premise sign which shall be limited to displaying the name of the establishment, the street address, the days and hours of operation, restrictions on the age of persons that may be admitted to the building and the non-specific identification of the NATURE of the stock-in-trade or entertainment offered therein (e.g. "Adult Toys", "Adult Books"). Nowhere on the sinage or on the building visible to outside passersby shall appear any verbiage, insignias, pictures, drawings or other descriptions suggestive of sexual acts or actions, or which represent the sexually oriented material and/or performances of the adult entertainment use.

b. In accordance with 5.30.040(5), a readable sign shall be conspicuously posted at or near each public entrance which clearly states, and is printed in letters at least one-inch tall: 'THIS ADULT ENTERTAINMENT ESTABLISHMENT IS REGULATED BY THE CITY OF YAKIMA". This sign shall not, for purposes of administration of this Section, limit the allowed use from having one (1) on-premise sign as indicated in 15.09.200(D)(1)(d).

E. Parking. The parking standards in YMC Ch. 15.06 shall apply to all off-street parking for uses under this Section.

F. Design Standards. Adult Entertainment Uses shall conform to the following design standards:

a. Buildings, fences, or other structures which are visible from any public right-of-way shall be of a neutral coloring and design scheme, similar to surrounding commercial facilities.

b. All windows, entries, and other openings shall be screened and/or covered in such a way that no business activity associated with adult entertainment uses, other than approved outside signage, shall otherwise be visible from any public right-of-way or other public space.

E. Prohibited Uses. Adult uses not included in the definition of "adult entertainment uses" pursuant to YMC 15.09.200 (B)(5), are prohibited. Prohibited activities include, but are not limited to, massage parlors, escort and introductory services, body studios and specified sexual activities and exhibitions not specifically allowed under the definition of "adult entertainment uses".

F. Nonconforming Uses. Any Adult Entertainment Use, Specified Sexual Activity/Exhibition in operation on the effective date of this Section, which is either made nonconforming by this Section or which is an existing nonconforming use shall be terminated within one year; provided, however, that such termination date may be extended upon the approval of an application filed with the city's community development director within 120 days of the effective date of this Code provision requesting an extension to such one-year amortization period. The director's decision on whether or not to approve any extension period and the length of such period shall be based upon the applicant clearly demonstrating extreme economic hardship based upon an irreversible financial investment or commitment made prior to the effective date of this ordinance, which precludes reasonable alternative uses of the subject property. A protected use specified in YMC 15.09.200(D) shall not benefit from the separation requirements of this Section if the protected use chooses to locate within five hundred (500) feet of a lawfully located and licensed adult entertainment use after the effective date of this ordinance. An adult entertainment facility is lawfully located if it has located within the City in accordance with the requirements of this Section.