SCHENECTADY, NY — The city Planning Commission will hold a hearing this month on an amendment that could force a controversial bed and breakfast to stop holding sex parties or move to an industrial zone.
The public hearing, set for Sept. 13 at City Hall, will be the public’s latest chance to speak about the city’s regulation of adult entertainment — and specifically the swingers parties held at the Union Street Bed & Breakfast.
The hearing is on an amendment to the city’s anti-smut law that would expand the number of adult businesses that can be regulated by the city.
The commission hearing comes in response to the City Council’s plan to expand legislation that already relegates adult book stores and strip clubs to industrial zones.
The amendment would force motels that rent rooms short-term and offer closed-circuit pornographic films, escort services, nude modeling studios, and adult entertainment theaters to move to primarily industrial tracts on Lower Broadway, Erie Boulevard and Maxon Road Extension.
L. John Van Norden, an assistant city corporation counsel, said the commission’s hearing is required by state law and city ordinance, but neighbors who want the inn closed saw it as just another delay.
“We’re going to have to confront the issue. It’s not going to go away,” said Richard Rheingold of the Eastern Avenue Neighborhood Association.
City Council members — who will have to hold their own public hearing — had hoped to have the amendment in place within six weeks, but that appears unlikely now. Van Norden thought the soonest it could be scheduled for a vote is late October.
The amendment as a direct response to neighbors of the Union Street Bed & Breakfast who contend that the inn serves primarily as a pay-to-play destination for couples interested in swapping partners for sex.
But inn owner Bob Alexson says the party isn’t over yet.
“I’m not going anywhere. They’re private parties. I’ve said that from day one,” said Alexson who insists that as long has he doesn’t charge for his parties, a practice he claims stopped after concerns were raised, the city has no power to regulate him as a business.
Alexson said it’s a position his attorney, Stephen Coffey, shares and is prepared to argue in court if the city tries to shut him down.
But Van Norden said the issue might not be as simple as whether Alexson has stopped charging a fee. The frequencies of his party could be grounds to force him to move, he said.