WESTPORT, MA — If a proposed amendment to the Westport, MA bylaw regulating adult entertainment passes, the new district for adult businesses would not include the site for an already-proposed strip club, a maneuver that the club’s attorney asserts infringes on his client’s rights.According to the Fall River, Massachusetts-based Herald News, the amendment was crafted by a subcommittee formed by the Westport Board of Selectmen because the town did not provide an area for adult businesses to operate – making the town vulnerable to lawsuits, potentially, from adult businesses seeking to open there.
If the measure is approved by voters, an “adult entertainment overlay district” would be established that is approximately a mile wide on the north side of Route 6, between Sanford Road and Route 88. According to the Herald News, much of the land in the area is vacant, although there are car dealerships, bowling alleys, and handful of nearby residences.
The current proposed location for the strip club, on the other hand, is along Route 6 on the east side of Route 88, essentially on the opposite site of the district that would be established under the proposed adult entertainment bylaw.
Brian Corey Jr., attorney for the club, told the Herald News that he was “shocked and disappointed” when he read the proposed amendment to the Westport bylaw.
“I see this as nothing more than an attempt by the town to infringe upon my client’s Constitutionally-protected rights,” Corey said.
One of Corey’s beefs with the proposed district is the nature of the vacant land, itself, as much of the proposed adult zone is wetlands.
The proposed adult entertainment district “creates very little possibility with the topography for this type of establishment,” Corey said.
Under the town’s current bylaw, established in 1998, the club and other adult businesses are permitted to open in a larger area along Route 6, essentially running between local thoroughfares Davis Road and Washington Street, according to Planning Board administrative assistant Gale Nigrelli.
According to the press, the proposed strip club spot is the only area that the club could open under the current bylaw.
Corey asserted that the location his client desires actually would be less intrusive than the area proposed under the amendment to the bylaw.
“What they have consciously done is deny my client the opportunity to open a business in what would have amounted to a more discrete location,” Corey said, referring to the originally proposed site, which is located just east of an interchange of Route 88 and Route 6.
In addition to defining a new adult entertainment district, the proposed amendment to the bylaw would establish other restrictions on adult businesses. According to the Herald News, those restrictions include:
• Adult businesses must be more than 300 feet from the nearest residential district, church, school, library or park
• Restrictions on signage and the display of graphics and merchandise relating to sexual conduct visible from outside the establishment
• Entrances and windows into the businesses must be screened so that passers-by cannot see inside, and a five foot tall fence or “landscaped buffer” must be erected to shield the building’s rear and sides
• Adult business owners must provide and pay for a police security detail “whenever the police chief deems it necessary”
• Applications for adult businesses must include a traffic study, security precautions and detailed plans for the building
If passed by Westport’s voters, the proposal will then face a tougher hurdle; Corey indicated he will file suit against the town for violating his client’s rights, and “seek damage as allowed.”
