Adult zoning proposed

Bylaw would limit area for businesses

Middleton voters next year may decide whether to set aside areas in town where adult-oriented businesses could be located.

At a recent meeting of the Board of Selectmen and several other town panels, it was agreed that the Planning Board will develop a zoning proposal for Town Meeting in the spring calling for creation of one or more adult business districts, according to Selectman Timothy P. Houten.

Houten said the proposed bylaw, similar to measures in place in many other communities, is intended as a proactive step to allow the town to regulate the location of any sex-oriented bookstores, entertainment clubs, or other adult businesses that might want to come to Middleton.

Currently, an adult business could locate anywhere in town zoned for the general type of business involved, such as a bookstore, according to Mark Bobrowski, a consultant to Middleton on zoning issues and a professor at New England School of Law.

Bobrowski noted that the US Supreme Court has held that municipalities cannot prohibit adult businesses from locating in their communities but can restrict them through zoning to specific areas as long as those restrictions are reasonable.

Houten said no adult businesses are currently seeking to locate in town. But he said officials want to be prepared for the possibility.

"What we are worried about is that there are so many empty storefronts on Route 114," he said, adding that an owner of one of those buildings might be willing to sell or lease to an adult business if the offer was right.

Houten said town officials currently envision locating the adult business districts within one or more of its industrially zoned areas, which include areas near the transfer station, off Logbridge Road, and off Sharpner's Pond Road.

Bobrowski, who has consulted with dozens of communities across the state on zoning issues, estimated about a third have adopted adult zoning districts or made adult businesses an allowable use within existing districts.

He said he advises communities about the "repercussions of being silent" on the subject in their bylaws, referring to the ability of adult businesses - in the absence of any bylaw restrictions - to "go anywhere that generic type of business could go."

Sam Cleaves, senior regional planner with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, said in Essex County, communities that have established adult business districts or made adult businesses an allowable use within existing districts include: Amesbury, Danvers, Georgetown, Ipswich, Lawrence, Merrimac, Methuen, North Andover, Rowley, Salisbury, Saugus, and West Newbury.

Donald Schmidt, director of the smart growth zoning program for the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development, cautioned that any zoning restrictions that communities enact regarding adult businesses cannot focus on the type of product being sold. He said the Supreme Court has ruled that would be a violation of freedom of speech. Instead, communities must base any restrictions on "secondary effects" associated with those businesses.

"The message should be that we are concerned about property values, we are concerned about increasing crime," he said. "It should not be that we don't like these uses."

Middleton previously discussed adopting an adult business bylaw about five years ago but no proposal was ever put before a town meeting, according to Planning Board chairman Bob Aldenberg.

"But it's a subject matter every town and city has to deal with," he said. "If you don't want it on every street corner, . . . you've got to do it."

Houten said the impetus for developing the districts came from the town's Bylaw Review Committee, which has identified the lack of such a measure as a deficiency in the town's zoning rules.

Houten said the town plans to base its bylaw on the one instituted by the western Massachusetts town of Lee, which he noted is comparable with Middleton in land size.

As a first step, he said, Middleton's Planning Board, which is working with the Bylaw Review Committee, will come up with recommendations on where to locate the adult business districts.

Houten predicted some residents might be alarmed by the bylaw proposal, mistakenly assuming that the town is seeking to attract adult businesses. But he said town officials plan to hold educational forums so residents understand that is not the intent.