New Jersey- from www.northjersey.com – The Elmwood Park Council has taken the steps to limit where adult entertainment stores can be located in town.

The ordinance, read on first reading at a council meeting on Feb. 17, aims to amend the planning board code of the borough to limit where adult entertainment stores can be placed. The ordinance stems from a recent Elmwood Park Planning Board meeting to amend the master code of Elmwood Park to restrict adult entertainment shops to a finite area of town. If the ordinance is passed at final reading, adult stores will only be able to set up in a business district which does not come into contact with a residential or school zone. Moreover, an adult shop will not be allowed within 1,000 feet of school bus stops, houses of worship, hospitals, borough parks and other vital daily public services.

With the restrictions, if an adult shop were to open it would be restricted to the east section of Elmwood Park just south of where the Garden State Parkway and Route 80 intersect, roughly the end of Van Riper Avenue.

According to Elmwood Park Borough Clerk Keith Kazmark, “the ordinance limits adult shops to a small industrial section of town.”

During the reading of the ordinance, Elmwood Park Borough Councilman Richard Trawinski stated, “as the law currently reads, an adult entertainment shop can currently open its doors anywhere in town. This ordinance aims to amend the borough code to keep adult entertainment shops out of the eyes and reach of residential areas and school zones.”

Currently there are no open adult entertainment shops in Elmwood Park.

“This ordinance concerns the possibility of such a shop,” commented Elmwood Park Mayor Richard A. Mola.

The first reading passed with unanimous consent.

Second reading of the ordinance will take place March 3 at 8 p.m. at the Elmwood Park Municipal Building.