STANARDSVILLE, VA — In an effort to “get ahead of the curve” where adult-oriented businesses are concerned, Greene County, VA, supervisors have established a county-wide zoning code that allows such businesses to locate only within specified industrial districts.“We know that across the mountain some folks have had some issues with [sexually oriented businesses],” Zoning Administrator Bart Svoboda told the Board of Supervisors just prior to a vote on the ordinance. “What we’re trying to do is … get ahead of the curve and [define] where these businesses are allowed and where they are not.”

The new ordinance defines sexually oriented businesses as adult bookstores, adult video stores and adult entertainment establishments. Businesses that sell books, videos and novelties are considered “adult” if 20-percent of the inventory or floor space is devoted to “sexually explicit materials” or devices “designed for use in connection with sexually explicit activities.” Adult entertainment establishments include theaters, nightclubs, arcades and cabarets that offer adult goods and services.

All adult businesses must obtain special-use permits from the county prior to operating and are allowed to operate only in M-2 light industrial districts, which are designed to house low-level manufacturing businesses. In addition, adult enterprises must be a minimum of 1,000 feet from residences, churches, schools, daycare facilities, parks and other adult establishments.

“Greene County has determined that permitting sexually oriented businesses, as defined, in proximity to residential, institutional and non-adult oriented retail uses would have a detrimental effect on such adjacent uses,” according to a statement released by the Board of Supervisors. “Land use studies from cities and counties around the United States … clearly document the harmful secondary effects caused by sexually oriented businesses. Those harmful secondary effects include increased crime, decreased property value, and urban blight.”