Berlin, Connecticut- As vociferous opponents to a proposed sex shop in Berlin continue to wage their fight against Very Intimate Pleasures, familiar arguments against porn shops are being aired: that such stores create hot spots for crime and vagrancy and will drive property values into the toilet.
But a review of police records and property values in Orange, which unsuccessfully fought VIP in 2002, show that neither has been the case there.
Police say that the numbers of crimes reported at VIP's Boston Post Road location has been very low since the store opened in 2003, lower than other "legitimate" businesses nearby. And according to town records, property values in nearby commercial and residential areas have risen.
But to Berlin Mayor Adam Salina, the proposed site of the Berlin VIP is fundamentally different fom the one in Orange. Where in Orange, the store is located on the Boston Post Road next to other strip malls and businesses, VIP owner Gary Porter's planned location at 717 Berlin Turnpike directly abuts family homes.
"The property line on the back is a swing set in someone's backyard," Salina said.
The fight to bring a VIP - which sells adult novelty items, DVDs, lingerie and toys - to Orange and Berlin has similarities and differences. In both cases, town planning and zoning boards at first denied VIP's application, and in both cases, Porter filed federal lawsuits challenging regulations that led to the denials.
Orange ended up accepting VIP in a compromise agreement in 2003, on the condition that it only sell adult books, videos, magazines and other sexually oriented items but not offer peep shows or live sex shows.
But in Berlin's case, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal stepped in. Blumenthal filed an amicus curiae brief in March and was allowed to help defend the town against Porter's lawsuit, which alleged that Berlin's requirement that any "sexually oriented business" be located away from homes and schools is unconstitutional.
Blumenthal is framing this fight as not so much about porn stores, but the rights of Connecticut's small towns to decide for themselves which businesses are and are not appropriate. Berlin is denying VIP's license to operate a "sexually-oriented business." A town ordinance also requires that any such business be located more than 250 feet away from any residentially-zoned land.
"The basic premise here is whether towns and cities have a right to regulate these types of businesses," Blumenthal said. "There is a proliferation of these sexually-oriented businesses that impact property values and quality of life. ... Our point is they have that right."
The Supreme Court has ruled that towns can't ban sexually oriented businesses outright but can place restrictions on where they are located based on fears of negative "secondary effects."
In Orange, the crime fears turned out to be largely unfounded.
Assistant Police Chief Ed Koether said that from 2005 to this year, there have been three arrests at the VIP store, Orange's only sex shop, and that none of those cases dealt with crimes of a sexual nature. The three arrests were for shoplifting, a young child left alone in a car and an argument between two people outside the business, he said.
"This is actually relatively light," Koether said. "Shoplifting, for instance; there are some stores on the Post Road that are extremely heavy; disorderly conduct complaints happen everywhere."
And according to property records, the presence of VIP in Orange certainly hasn't decreased the value of any businesses or residential homes nearby; they've all gone up in value since the town did its last revaluation in 2006. Every house on Lindy Street, the closest residential area to VIP, has seen its property value increase since 2000, the records show.
But Salina said that Berlin's situation is differentfrom that in Orange or in Milford, which saw a similar store, Penthouse Boutique, open in a commercial area in 2003. In Berlin, the adult-themed store would literally be in some residents' backyards.
"Based on the fact that VIP directly abuts a neighborhood, the large concern is over property values," Salina said. "A couple of homes have been on the market for some time (since VIP announced a year ago it was planning to come to the area)."
Salina said not to expect an out-of-court settlement, like in Orange. "We will not negotiate," he said.
In his brief, Blumenthal says that "studies show that such businesses cause increased crime, especially sex-related crimes" and the general degradation of the neighborhoods in which they are located. He cites studies conducted in Indianapolis, Phoenix, Denver and other cities that show crime statistics are higher in neighborhoods with sexually-oriented businesses.
But a 2004 study conducted by Daniel Linz, a professor of communications at the University of California at Santa Barbara, examined crime statistics and property values near adult bookstores and cabarets in Toledo, Ohio, and found that those businesses were not to blame for crime hotspots.
In that study, Linz and other researchers compared crime rates within 1,000 feet of adult cabarets and bookstores for six months before and after they closed, and found that there was virtually no change.
Blumenthal acknowledged that there are different studies that have reached different conclusions when it comes to the secondary effects of adult businesses, but said that there are "well-founded fears" of higher rates of crimes and a deterioration of the of quality of life. Regardless, Berlin's law is constitutional, he said, and the town has a right to dictate where a type of business can open up.
"Towns and cities have a right to be wrong about particular effects," Blumenthal said. "But their reasons are generally well founded if they're trying to protect the public health and safety."
VIP Attorney Daniel Silver said he feels the "Berlin situation has really gotten out of hand."
He contends the location is in a "completely commercial district" like the VIP in Orange. Silver also said he feels Berlin officials have a problem with the store's name, and not its content, because both he and Porter believe that VIP doesn't technically qualify as a sexually-oriented business.
Silver and Porter said they are a little taken aback by Blumenthal's weighing in on the case.
"Why the AG has done this one could surmise," Silver said. "Is it politics? I don't know. It's a local decision that has nothing to do with the state of Connecticut."
Milford officials spoke out against the opening of Penthouse Boutique on Woodmont Road, near an Interstate 95 exit, in 2003. But the city's Planning and Zoning Board never voted to block the store because members said they had no legal basis to do so. Still, the city used bureaucratic measures to briefly keep the store from actually selling anything after it had opened.
Milford Planning and Zoning Board member Mark Lofthouse, R-5, questioned why Blumenthal is getting involved in Berlin's fight against VIP, but was nowhere to be found when Milford officials wanted to keep Penthouse Boutique out.
"Why is he stepping up now unless the attorney general is planning to challenge the Constitution?" Lofthouse asked. "Maybe he's showing that no one wants to live next to (an adult business)."
Lofthouse said Milford officials were powerless to ban Penthouse Boutique because of the Constitution, but he stressed Milford has one of the strongest ordinances governing adult-oriented businesses in the region.
"You can't zone that type of business out of a community. That's viewed as discriminatory," Lofthouse said. "I wish Berlin a lot of luck."
If approved, the Berlin VIP store will be Porter's fourth in Connecticut.
In addition to the Orange store he also owns a store in Manchester and one in Hartford, in a district that already had sexually-oriented businesses. Business is apparently good - Porter says that each of his stores draws an average of 400 paying customers a day.
"(Business) is absolutely great; we are getting the traffic," Porter said. "I understand their issues, but they have to understand my issues ... all of us care about keeping this stuff away from children."
