FOLEY, Alabama — City officials want to regulate adult book or video stores and other “sexually oriented businesses,” with the first step being a new application process that includes background checks and a $3,000 fee under an ordinance passed by the City Council.
Council members voted unanimously to approve the ordinance Monday night. City officials said another ordinance is also being prepared to set zoning regulations to determine where such businesses will be allowed in the future.
Under the ordinance, the owner and manager of any business that sold adult items as the primary product would undergo city background checks before a business license would be issued. The business would also have to pay a special application fee of $3,000 each year in addition to standard business license fees.
Businesses included in the ordinance would include adult book stores, video stores, escort services, massage parlors and any other establishment “intended to provide sexual stimulation or sexual gratification to the customer, or which places an emphasis on the presentation, display, depiction or description of sexual activities or of nude persons.”
Existing businesses that fit the description would be allowed to operate until their current business licenses expired. The owners or managers would then have to pay the application fee before getting the license renewed, according to the ordinance.
County Commission officials announced earlier this month that they would check to see if a business on Alabama 59 in north Foley had a required license to sell adult items.
Foley Councilman Wayne Trawick said the city had been working on rules to regulate such businesses before the store opened.
“We’ve been after this thing for years. I don’t know what’s happened to it,” Trawick said. “It kind of fell through the cracks.”
At the work session before the council meeting, Trawick said city officials need to take action before other stores open in the area.
“I just think it would be bad if we got this close and wound up with one in the historic district,” he said.
Mayor John Koniar said he felt that while officials and most Foley residents would want adult businesses regulated, any legal challenges could delay restrictions being implemented.
“I don’t think the public is going to be unhappy with this, but we need to be sure that we do it properly and it doesn’t come back and be challenged at some later time,” he said. “It’s my understanding that, according to our attorney, we cannot prohibit this type of business in the city. We can control where it goes with zoning and the type of people who do it with background checks and so forth. There are lots of ways, but this is not a perfect world, so we have to deal with it.”
In other action at the Monday meeting, the council voted to spend $4,000 to allow Alva Tate to conduct a motivational program for up to 60 school-age children in Foley.
Tate said the “Resiliency” program combines emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual motivation to help children who need assistance.