Dedham voters will decide on new brunch law, ‘adult’ zoning

Meeting members also will decide whether to authorize selectmen to allow restaurants and hotels to sell alcoholic beverages on Sundays between 10 a.m. and noon.

The “brunch law’’ allows drinks to be sold before noon on Christmas Day and Memorial Day as well.

The Finance Committee, which reviews all warrant articles for Town Meeting, was divided on whether to recommend approval of the contract for the Police Patrolmen’s Association, with the final tally 7-2 in favor. The contract includes stipends to cover education incentives, to make up for money the state used to pay under the Quinn Bill program but has significantly cut back.

The Finance Committee was unanimous, though, in its recommendation to approve a new “adult use’’ zoning district, which includes all of the Legacy Place shopping complex and some nearby property on Stergis Way. The zoning would allow strip clubs and stores selling sex toys and X-rated materials.

Numerous court cases have ruled that such businesses are protected by free speech rights and can locate anywhere other businesses are allowed, unless they are controlled by specific zoning rules, and cannot be banned entirely.

Dedham was forced to confront the issue two years ago when a lawsuit brought by Dedham’s only adult shop revealed a potential problem with the town’s zoning rules, officials said.

The settlement overruled a town decision and allowed Amazing, a book and video shop with a website that warns it “features adult content that may be offensive for some people,’’ to move from the front to the back of its building. The case raised the possibility that the zoning could be successfully challenged in court, according to the town’s lawyers.

Town Meeting quickly approved a new site for an “adult’’ district, off Allied Drive on the Westwood line. But an outcry from neighbors in both towns, and a ruling from the state attorney general that Westwood wasn’t properly notified, led to the search for yet another site.

Selectwoman Sarah MacDonald chaired the committee charged with finding a new site and said the latest proposal should satisfy most people. The land isn’t close to homes, schools, or places of worship, she said.

And, perhaps most importantly, the landowners are unlikely to rent to an adult business, she said. “There’s no explicit deal that they won’t allow’’ a business of that type, MacDonald said, “but we looked at their history and we asked questions.

“We asked [Legacy Place owners], ‘Do you allow adult uses anywhere around the country [in your properties]?’ and they said no. We asked about their occupancy rate, which is high, which we interpreted to mean they aren’t desperate’’ for tenants, MacDonald said.

“We have to allow’’ adult businesses, she said, “we don’t have to make it easy’’ for them.

Other warrant articles include establishing a tax amnesty program for residents late in paying real estate taxes, and a proposal to increase the allowance to widows of disabled public employees by $3,000 a year.

Town Meeting convenes at 7 p.m. at the high school.

Johanna Seltz can be reached at seelenfam@verizon.net.