PALMDALE - Palmdale officials are looking to tighten an ordinance blocking adult businesses from setting up in residential areas, updating it to address new technologies such as webcasting.
Having received information about a business considering an adult video studio in a residential area, city officials are recommending the council on Wednesday revise restrictions against such businesses. The action would be done as an urgency ordinance, requiring at least a four-fifths vote by the council, and, if approved, would take effect immediately.
"In a family-oriented community, this type of activity won't be tolerated," said Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford.
The existing ordinance against "adult modeling studios" was enacted in 1997, before the proliferation of Internet and digital technologies. Those technologies make it easier to record and transmit adult material.
"These ordinances are our first line of defense," Ledford said. "These ordinances need to be as descriptive as possible."
Among the changes in the ordinance is language stating it applies to patrons both on- and off-site, such as those viewing by webcast. The existing ordinance language regarding patrons could be construed as applying to only those customers on-site, said Deputy City Attorney Cesar Bertaud.
The ordinance's language is being updated to include references to electronically or digitally recorded adult material, and to transmitting the material through webcasting, cablecasting or other broadcast.
The technologies of the digital age have greatly increased the likelihood of the establishment of adult-oriented businesses or studios in residential Such adult businesses can threaten a neighborhood through increased traffic, noise, litter, drug and criminal activity, encroachments on public rights-of-way, and the risk of exposing children to suggestive sights and sounds, city officials said.
The proposed ordinance for adult modeling studios reads: "The term `adult modeling studio' as used in this section, means a business, or other premises or location, which provides, for ... compensation ... actors or actresses who, for the purposes of sexual stimulation of other persons either on-site or off-site patrons ... or perform `specified sexual activities' to be observed, sketched, filmed, photographed, videotaped, electronically or digitally recorded, painted, sculpted or otherwise depicted by persons on the premises, cable-casted, web-casted, broadcasted, transmitted to persons or locations off-site, or otherwise provided for sale."
The urgency ordinance will be taken up by the City Council when it meets at 7 p.m. Wednesday in council chambers, 38300 Sierra Highway, Suite B.
