PORT TOWNSEND — After extending a moratorium on the establishment of sexually oriented businesses nine times, Jefferson County commissioners have taken a step toward an ordinance that would accommodate and regulate such ventures.
The commissioners heard a proposed ordinance earlier this week and instructed the community development staff to refine it and present it to them again.
The proposed ordinance, which was developed first by the Planning Commission before revision by the planners of the Department of Community Development, has two components: restricting areas where sexually oriented businesses, called SOBs in the ordinance, could operate and implementing license fees for any business that passes the land-use criteria.
Stacie Hoskins, acting community development director, hopes the revisions will be completed in the next few weeks.
Commissioner David Sullivan said he wasglad to see some progress on the matter, which has been on the table since he took office in 2005.
“These aren’t the kind of businesses we want to see in the county, and there is really no place for them,” Sullivan said.
“But if the dancing is considered free speech, we can’t tell people they can’t do it.
“But we can regulate it because of the number of issues that are tied to these businesses.”
Hoskins said there have been no applications for the establishment of sexually oriented businesses during the time the moratorium has been in effect but added that this does not mean the ordinance is not important.
“If we didn’t establish some rules, it could be anywhere,” she said.
Under the proposed law, individual businesses still would have to acquire proper permits, and there would be a public comment period about the specific business, Sullivan said.
Licenses would cost each business $2,500 a year and increase with each employee possibly requiring a separate additional license, according to the proposed ordinance.
The licenses would be administered by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
Licensing fees would cover the cost of administering the program, with the excess going to the Sheriff’s Office, Hoskins said.
During the public hearing Monday, Joe D’Amico and Bill Miller questioned the ordinance’s intention to require licenses since the county does not require licenses for other businesses.
“It seems like we are singling out certain businesses for special treatment and charging them an extra fee to do that,” Miller said.
“I’m not sure that is fair.”
Sullivan disagreed, saying there are “a lot of issues” that come with such businesses and that this requires special consideration.
D’Amico added that if the county requires licenses, then it is obligated to provide support for the licensed businesses.
Among the land-use restrictions is a 1,000-foot buffer from schools and churches.
Sullivan said regulations can either restrict similar businesses to a single location or allow them in a variety of areas, and both options have disadvantages.
“If you group them together, then you create a red-light district, but if you have them in other areas, it conflicts with the businesses that are in place,” he said.
Sullivan said that a sexually oriented business would have to be within urban growth areas, which would limit it to either Port Hadlock or Quilcene.
Given its downtown churches and schools, an acceptable location would be difficult to find in Quilcene, Sullivan said, so Port Hadlock seems to be the only possibility.
The county ordinance was modeled on one in effect in Port Townsend since 2006, Hoskins said.
That ordinance allows sexuall -oriented businesses in the downtown historical district with several restrictions, including type of entertainment, distance from the customer, lighting and background checks, according to City Attorney John Watts.
It could not be in proximity to the Jefferson School, which is located in the downtown district, he said.
There have been no requests to open such a business in Port Townsend since the ordinance has been in effect, Watts said.
Sullivan said the designation of the businesses as “SOBs” is unfortunate.
“I wouldn’t want to see a headline in the newspaper that says, ‘County wants to license SOBs,’” he said.
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
