QUAKERTOWN, PA — Determined to be a “family friendly” place to live, officials in a two-square-mile parcel of land known as Quakertown may effectively outlaw nude dancing, adult bookstores, and other adult entertainment within the borough’s boundaries.With a name like Quakertown, did they have any other choice?
“We’re trying to revitalize and move forward with a family friendly atmosphere, and this is not something we need right now,” Councilman David Zaiser told Lehigh Valley’s The Morning Call newspaper.
That’s why the council is considering an ordinance that would all but ban the types of establishments that have placed nearby Milford Township at the center of a federal civil-rights lawsuit launched when Milford supervisors banned topless dancing just before a new cabaret was set to open. Quakertown wants to head off a similar “embarrassment” at the pass.
“I think it’s best for the community not to have the kind of establishment that’s being talked about in Milford,” Quakertown Councilman Jim Roberts told the paper.
The proposed Quakertown law creates a set of fairly common restrictions for adult establishments: They would have to be situated on one-acre or larger lots and could not locate within 1,000 feet of a residential area or school, or within 500 feet of a church, library, daycare center, children’s nursery, or public park. They would not be allowed to serve alcohol, and entertainers would be required to maintain a distance of at least three feet from customers.
It hasn’t escaped anyone’s notice that Quakertown is so small no adult business could locate within its boundaries under those guidelines.
That’s just fine with the locals, who said Milford Township isn’t the only area community that has had “trouble” with adult entertainment. In 2006, Coopersburg officials ordered a swingers club to cease operating inside the city limits. When the club refused to close, a judge issued an injunction barring it from opening. The Coopersburg Zoning Hearing Board eventually approved a settlement with Club Kama Sutra, but not before a very public row.
And Quakertown itself has been touched by adult-entertainment unpleasantness. In 2005, a raid at K-Spa, a massage parlor in the borough, netted charges of prostitution.
