Bethlehem, Pa- When the Bethlehem Planning Commission gets its first look at a sketch plan for a proposed Sands casino on the South Side, it also will consider zoning law changes that would specifically allow gambling while trying to prevent a sin city from growing up around the slots parlor.

The proposed law prohibits adult-oriented businesses, pawn shops and check-cashing outfits from opening within the BethWorks Now industrial redevelopment zone where the casino is proposed. It also would prohibit new adult businesses, pawn shops and check cashers from opening within 5,000 feet – nearly a mile – of the casino, or within 1,000 feet of one another.

The law also would redefine and place new restrictions on adult-oriented businesses, such as massage parlors, adult bookstores and bring-your-own-bottle clubs, keeping them at least 1,000 feet from schools and residential zones, and at least 500 feet from houses of worship, day care centers, nursery schools, public parks, playgrounds or existing homes.

And no club with exotic dancers will be allowed to offer ”lap dances,” a specific reference in the proposed law. Strippers would have to stay at least three feet away from customers.

Existing adult-oriented businesses in Bethlehem would be allowed to remain in operation where they are, said Darlene Heller, the city’s director of planning and zoning. However, new establishments would be restricted to the city’s heavy industrial zone, contained entirely within former Bethlehem Steel land but separate from the BethWorks Now industrial redevelopment zone.

Mayor John Callahan said it made sense for the city to re-address its adult business restrictions while it considers a new zoning law for gaming. There are probably some ”loopholes” for adult businesses in the current law, he said.

”If you look at different areas of the country, some casinos have brought these kind of adult uses, and some have not,” Callahan said. ”It’s not a given that they will come, but I don’t think we should leave it to chance.”

The mayor said he does not believe the proposed restrictions will come up against First Amendment or free speech legal challenges. ”Most of this stuff is modeled after ordinances that have already stood up to the test of the court,” Callahan said.

The neighboring industrial redevelopment zone, also on former Steel land, includes the 126-acre BethWorks Now entertainment district and land that fronts the Route 412 corridor, the gateway to the city from Interstate 78.

The proposed restrictions within industrial redevelopment zones also apply to the site of the former Durkee spice plant along Eighth Avenue, where the Lowe’s Home Improvement Warehouse is nearing completion and more shops will be built.

Under the proposed law, new pawnbrokers and check cashers will continue to be permitted in general commercial and shopping center districts, provided individual businesses are not developed within 1,000 feet of one another.

”With the separation distances, we felt there would be no concentration of these uses ,” Heller said.