Secondary Effects: Town of Islip

Islip, NY published a detailed strategy and rationale for regulating adult businesses through zoning (PDF) in 1980. Here are some of their findings which have a bearing on Northampton’s new ordinances, especially the desire to keep downtown Northampton pedestrian-friendly:

Planning relies heavily on public participation, both by federal government mandate and by professional standards. The principle being that those persons living in an area should have control over its development, creating a distinct neighborhood quality reflective of their needs and desires. The planner’s role is to facilitate, orchestrate, consolidate, and mediate various groups to insure that the community’s goal is achieved. This principle is especially true in a suburban environment with almost all land owned by individuals residing in the area. They are interested in their community and in protecting it from uses they perceive as deleterious. The most common manner of protection being complaint to the local government…

The existence of two adult entertainment uses next to one another…has created a “dead zone” in one of the healthier portions of the downtown. Users of Bay Shore Downtown generally park and then walk about the town to shop. As various individuals would rather not be associated with or be seen in front of regulated businesses nor have their children walk by them, many persons who might patronize other stores on the block avoid going there. This results in the loss of business of non-adult entertainment stores, possibly causing them to go out of business or move to another area. This, as a result, hastens the decline, or hinders the up surging of the Downtown, creating or emphasizing it as a place not to go, furthering the creation of a skid-row…

[T]he location of this business [Regent Theatre in the Bay Shore area] in the core of the jewelry section of downtown Bay Shore, can cause discomfort to pedestrian shoppers who pass by comparison shopping at the various jewelry stores. Unlike the seemingly lack of effect adult oriented stores seem to have on strip type commercial development, customer deliberately chooses (by parking) where he will shop, while the downtown shopping environment is pedestrian oriented. The Downtown atmosphere prevents the use of the car to go by a use that one might find offensive but rather the individual pedestrian shopper might avoid the area entirely…