Residents not ready for adult district

The town has yet to receive an application for a strip club or adult bookstore. But without an established district, officials say, businesses offering adults-only fare, ranging from cabarets to movie theaters to paraphernalia and video stores, could conceivably set up shop wherever they want.

“All we’re doing is taking them away from where they could currently go and move them in a different direction,’’ said Town Administrator Jack McFeeley. “This protects the areas where you don’t want them.’’

Courts have ruled that adult entertainment is covered under laws protecting freedom of expression, finding that while municipalities may limit where those sorts of businesses go, they may not exclude them completely.

After two hours of comment Oct. 7, residents asked for more time, saying many were not heard or could not hear the proceedings, said Paige Duncan, the town planner.

The Planning Board will convene another hearing Nov. 4 in the town’s Public Safety Building to accommodate the expected crowd. Town Meeting is Nov. 9.

“I feel we have already made every effort here, but my board wants to be sure to do it right,’’ Duncan said. “We want full transparency.’’

The proposed special use overlay district is targeted for land off Madison Street and Route 1, near the old Laidlaw Landfill. Planners say they chose the location after thoroughly reviewing other town areas to see which would have the least impact on residents, neighborhoods, the business community, and the general public.

The parcel’s selling points include that it is accessible only from Route 1 but does not have direct frontage on the roadway; it is adjacent to Plainville’s adult-use zoning district and industrial properties; and it is isolated from residential areas.

Objections have been registered by the neighboring Wrentham Sportman’s Club, which owns 6.5 of the affected acres, and a number of residents, Duncan said.

Judy Simonds, who lives on Cherry Street, said residents learned about the first public hearing by accident, and when so many who attended could not speak or get into the room because of the large crowd, they insisted the board schedule another.

“What irritates us is no one wants one of those establishments anywhere, but our point of view is the Planning Board says they checked into three or four other sites and then they chose this one, right in front of the Sportsman’s Club,’’ said Simonds, whose husband Rich is a member. “We have children as members. We have family Christmas parties. And even the Boy Scouts come down regularly; we have already found out that if this goes in, they will never come here again.’’

Simonds said residents have the right to ask questions, and elected officials are bound to take them into consideration. Besides the Sportsman’s Club issue, Simonds said, traffic along Route 1 is already a nightmare because of Gillette Stadium and the Plainridge Racecourse.

“How do you get a majority of people to vote one way or the other if you don’t have the basic ABCs of an issue?’’ she asked. “Everyone needs to have a voice, not just the officials.’’

As Wrentham officials try for a third time to win approval for the district, other towns have also sought ways to restrict adult entertainment businesses that want to set up shop within their borders.

In June, voters in Medway agreed to move an existing adult use district from a small area along Route 109 near Pond Street to a larger area off Industrial Road. The new location was far enough off the beaten path to restrict easy access, Medway selectmen said at the time.

Other towns, including Hopkinton, Mendon, and Franklin, have tightened existing bylaws as they watched Milford battle in recent years against a special permit request for an adult-entertainment venue along East Main Street. Although Milford established an adult zone in the 1990s, the town recently shored up the bylaw. Milford officials took the additional step of passing rules to legislate other elements concerning an adult-business operation, such as how bright the lights should be and the spacing between patrons.

Based on past court rulings, members of the Wrentham Planning Board have emphasized that adult entertainment is protected under the US Constitution and Article 16 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights.

A town that does not provide certain locations within the community where adult uses may reasonably operate is vulnerable to a constitutional challenge, “which may result in adult entertainment uses being able to locate and operate anywhere that is zoned for a similar nonadult business use,’’ Wrentham planners posted on their website.

“People feel this will be an open invitation,’’ McFeeley said. “But it’s really not. You just put it on the books and forget about it.’’

Plainville established an adult entertainment district on about 20 acres off Belcher Street about 10 years ago. “We were ahead of the curve,’’ Town Administrator Joe Fernandes said.

As in other communities, Plainville officials were concerned about possible secondary effects of adult entertainment areas, such as increased crime and adverse impacts on public health, the business climate, commercial property, and quality of life, Fernandes said.

“At the time, it was a pretty isolated area,’’ he said of the parcel that backs up to that proposed by Wrentham. “You want to be proactive but not in a way to attract anything. And you have to think, ‘Do I want it here, or next to Stop & Shop?’ ’’

In Wrentham, Duncan is not optimistic that the overlay district will get the votes it needs Nov. 9 because of what she is describing as a “perfect storm of criticism’’ and a prevailing sense of “not in my backyard.’’

“I just hope that residents understand that if it doesn’t go here, there’s a good chance it would have to go somewhere more residential,’’ she said.

Bob Cohen, chairman of Wrentham’s Board of Selectmen and a member of the Planning Board, said planners chose the proposed site because it would have the least impact on residents. He said no one has tried to hide anything.

“People plug in late in the process and then say, ‘Hey, wait a minute, I didn’t know about this,’ ’’ he said. “But the fact is we’ve been talking about it for months and months.’’

Michele Morgan Bolton can be reached at mmbolton1@verizon.net