Sacramento Puts 45-Day Moratorium on New Adult Businesses

SACRAMENTO—The Sacramento County fathers do not know that they have a problem with new adult-related establishments exploiting licensing loopholes in the law, but that did not stop them from voting to institute a 45-day moratorium on new permits for adult-related business ... just in case. Neither did the decision Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors to pass the emergency ordinance come about because of adult-related issue that cropped up on the radar of county law enforcement, or because of changes to laws or regulations that oversee such businesses. No, it turns out that county officials put an immediate stop to new permits because they noticed that other businesses were taking advantage of loopholes in the law. According to SacramentoPress.com, "[County Executive Brad] Hudson said county staff recently noticed a 'spike' in the number of recycling centers cropping up throughout the county—business that were avoiding certain code restrictions by exploiting loopholes in the current business license and zoning codes." The actions by recycling centers got the staff thinking; not a good omen. “We started to ask ourselves, is there were any other kinds of businesses in the same circumstance,” Hudson said. “Adult-related establishments was an area we found that needed a closer look.” After all, they reasoned, it would make sense that businesses being squeezed by more restrictive regulations put into place by surrounding cities would migrate to less-restrictive areas in the county, where regulations haven't been updated in years. “We have a very old zoning code,” said Hudson. “There are some older portions that haven’t been updated in a while and some newer commercial (property) uses aren’t addressed specifically in (the code).” County Supervisor Don Nottoli said that the county has actually seen an increase in the number of adult-oriented businesses, in part because of city codes that contain broader definitions than the county of what it means for businesses and activities to be considered “adult-related.” According to the County Business Code, an “adult-related establishment” is defined as a bathhouse, escort bureau, introductory service, massage establishment, out-call massage service, modeling studio or sexual encounter center, or a businesses that provides services involving “specified sexual activities” or the display of “specified anatomical areas.” Adult bookstores, motion picture theaters, adult hotels, motels or cabarets are not currently included under the defintion, however. A county spokesperson said that there are currently 10 escort services and one modeling studio with special adult-related establishment permits located in the unincorporated areas of Sacramento County, and that there have been no active permits for any bathhouses or sexual encounter centers in the county since the 1970s. Still, considering the uneven codes and also a poor commercial housing market that makes landlords all the more open to renting to establishments they might otherwise avoid, the county decided that it would be unwise to wait until it was too late. The 45-day moratorium will allow the Board of Supervisors to put tighter controls in place, and if they can’t get it done in that amount of time, the law permits them to extend the emergency ordinance twice—for 10 months and two weeks and then for a year—essentially giving themselves two years in which to adopt new adult-related codes. Of course, that’s also two years in which no new adult-related businesses can set up shop in the county. In hard economic times, those businesses will bring much-needed jobs to the area. Time will tell where the priorities of the supervisors lie.