Nicollet County OKs moratorium on sexually orientated businesses

Process of

preparing ordinance

began last January

By RACHEL WEDDIG

Journal Staff Writer

ST. PETER -- Nicollet County Board members on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution that places a six-month temporary moratorium on adult uses/sexually orientated businesses.

Environmental Services Director Tina Rosenstein presented the resolution. It stated: "Nicollet County is aware of the ramifications associated with adult uses/sexually orientated businesses and the need to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the residents of Nicollet County. It is the nature of these activities that promoted several studies which concluded an increase in crime rates, decreased property values, increased transiency, neighborhood blight and potential health risks."

The Nicollet County Environmental Services Department has been in the process of preparing an adult uses/sexually orientated businesses ordinance since January, according to Rosenstein.

The board decided to pass the interim ordinance after the opening of a strip club in Nicollet in late September. The club surprised and shocked many administrators and residents of Nicollet.

The temporary six-month ordinance allows for Nicollet County to prepare the final draft language for the ordinance by going through the Nicollet County Planning and Zoning Advisory Commission. Public hearings will also be held.

Among the businesses affected by the ordinance are adult bookstores, adult motion pictures, adult picture rental, adult mini-motion picture theaters, adult massage parlors, adult steam room bathhouse and sauna facilities.

The list also includes any businesses or places open to the public, at or in which there is an emphasis on presentation, display, depiction or description of "specified sexual activities" or "specified anatomical areas" which are capable of being viewed by members of the public.