NORTHAMPTON, MA – Ward 3 Councilor Marilyn Richards says she’d just as soon not have an adult store on Northampton’s King Street at all, but she apparently has come to terms with the city’s inability to legally prevent Capital Video from opening its doors there.After all, Richards says, she and her fellow councilor’s will still have a say in how many hours a day those doors can be open and what Capital sells from the store within.
“We can’t say it [Capital] can’t be in town,” Richards told the Springfield-based newspaper The Republican, “but we can zone it.”
At a council meeting last week, Richards and Ward 6 Councilor Marianne LaBarge introduced a pair of ordinances designed to give the city more say in the operation of Capital’s to-be-opened shop.
According to the Republican, the first of the proposals modifies an existing ordinance designed to regulate nude dancing so that the ordinance can be applied to other manner of adult businesses. The proposed changes would eliminate a provision requiring that a business have a liquor license in order to be subject to the ordinance.
The current ordinance regulating nude dancing allows Northampton’s Planning Board to dictate the days and hours of operation for strip clubs; eliminating the liquor license stipulation would allow the Board to do the same for shops like Capital.
The second proposed ordinance prohibits the display of “obscene material,” as defined under Massachusetts’ state law, on signs that are visible from the street or “other public places,” and states that windows and may only be obscured or shaded with approval of the Planning Board.
According to the Republican, in Capital’s original application for a building permit, the plan included video viewing booths of the kind regulated under the proposed ordinance. After a public furor led by a group called No Porn Northampton, however, the company removed the viewing booths from its building plan altogether.
Richards said the new ordinance “assures [Capital] can’t change their minds” about including the video booths and that the intent of the ordinance is strictly to shield the public from unwanted exposure to the sexually-explicit material for sale in the shop.
“We’re trying to strike a very delicate balance between free speech, and health and safety, and property values,” said Richards.
The new ordinances have been referred to the “Ordinance Committee,” according to the Republican, to be discussed at the committee’s September 12th meeting. From there, the proposals will be debated at a joint meeting of the Ordinance and Planning boards on September 28th.
Richards encouraged citizens of Northampton to get involved, saying that “people should come and express themselves” at the meetings.
