FELLSMERE — After three hours of testimony and discussion, the Fellsmere City Council Thursday night unanimously supported three proposed ordinances that will set the framework by which adult entertainment businesses can operate – if ever such a business were to come to town.
The public hearing held was the first of two such hearings. The second will be held at 7 p.m. Aug. 6.
“This is nothing new for the City,” City Attorney Warren Dill told the standing-room-only crowd, explaining that the City’s staff and leaders have been working on such ordinances since 2008 but only now have gotten the rules developed enough to bring forward.
“We cannot prevent these establishments from coming to Fellsmere,” Dill said. However, he added, the City can pass rules that help mitigate the secondary effects associated with such establishments.
The secondary effects include crime and decreased property values. Municipalities often write rules to curb the hours of operation for such businesses and establish areas where adult entertainment businesses can operate so as to limit the impact on the surrounding community.
Under Fellsmere’s proposed rules, such businesses – which include dance clubs, strip clubs, adult bookstores, adult theaters, escort services, and the like – hours of operation would be allowed from 10 a.m. to Midnight and no alcohol would be allowed to be served.
For strip clubs and other establishments where there are performances, performers must use a raised stage.
The proposed ordinance originally called for a 3-foot separation between performers and patrons. However, Councilwoman Sara Savage asked if that distance could be widened.
When asked what distance she’d like the gap to be, Savage responded, “What can I legally get away with?”
Dill told the Council that courts have supported as much as a 6-foot separation. Savage requested the ordinance be amended to reflect a 6-foot distance and Council concurred.
The ordinances also set forth the distance between any one adult entertainment business and another and prevents more than one adult business – regardless of the type of venture – on one property.
The distances are as follows:
-No less than 2,500 feet from schools (public or private, elementary through high school; does not include day cares and other similar businesses); Florida law has set the maximum distance from schools at 2,500 feet and municipalities are allowed to set lesser distances.
-No less than 750 feet from churches, parks (not conservation areas), and residentially zoned/planned property; Dill explained that when the City first started to consider buffers, they tried 1,000 feet but it kept too many properties from being potential sites that he felt the City would be on shaky legal ground in the event the City were faced with a lawsuit.
-No less than 1,000 feet from other adult entertainment businesses, regardless of type.
The separation between adult entertainment businesses is meant to disperse the establishments rather than allow them to congregate in one area, Community Development Director Mark Mathes told the Council.
Savage asked about the wisdom of keeping the businesses separated and wondered if having them clustered together might make enforcement easier.
Mathes said that in his review of numerous studies, those municipalities that allowed the businesses to cluster found higher rates of crime and increases in other negative impacts to the community.
He said that at about 1,000 feet from such businesses calls for police service start to return to normal and property values begin to come back to the community average.
Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Mjr. Victor DeSantis, who consulted with the Fellsmere Police Department on the matter, warned the Council against allowing the businesses to congregate in one area.
“Don’t let them cluster up,” he said. “You’re going to get Bourbon Street.”
The ordinances require adult entertainment business owners to go through a licensing process, which, among other things, mandates employees be registered with the City and their fingerprints on file; that employees undergo background checks; and that records are maintained of any bodily contact between employees and patrons.
Adult theaters would not be allowed to have closed viewing rooms. Advertising would be regulated. And signage would be restricted to the name of the business, its hours of operation, and a keyword tag denoting what kind of establishment it is.
Three members of the public addressed the Council, two supporting the proposed rules and one who urged the Council to “keep an open mind.”
The speaker told the Council that the only information presented by staff and law enforcement was negative in nature.
“It’s all one-sided tonight,” he said, noting that when Wal-Mart comes into an area, there’s an increase in calls for police service and, after Midnight, there is often calls for more serious types of crimes.
He noted that adult businesses are like any other – there are establishments that are 1-star and others that are 5-star. Each attracts a certain caliber of clientele.
Mayor Susan Adams acknowledged the speaker’s point but noted that of all the studies – more than 2 dozen – that were reviewed while preparing the ordinances, not a single one noted a positive impact adult entertainment establishments have had on the surrounding community.
“We are well within our right” to draft these ordinances, she said, so as to mitigate the negative impacts without infringing on free speech.
