Firebaugh City Zoning Code
§ 25-41.11
Sexually Oriented Businesses.
a.
Purpose and intent.
1.
It is the purpose and intent of this Ordinance to regulate sexually oriented businesses to promote the health, safety, morals, and general welfare of the citizens of Firebaugh and to establish reasonable and uniform regulations to prevent any deleterious location and concentration of sexually oriented businesses within the City, thereby reducing or eliminating the adverse secondary effects from such sexually oriented businesses. The provisions of this Ordinance have neither the purpose nor effect of imposing a limitation or restriction on the content of any communicative materials, including sexually oriented materials. Similarly, it is not the intent nor effect of this ordinance to restrict or deny access by adults to sexually oriented materials protected by the First Amendment, or to deny access by the distributors and exhibitors of sexually oriented entertainment to their intended market. Neither is it the intent nor effect of the ordinance to condone or legitimatize the distribution of obscene material.
2.
One of the important purposes of the regulations set forth in this section is to discourage and to minimize the opportunity for criminal conduct. As such, nothing in this section shall permit or be interpreted to permit any use, conduct, and/or activity which is specifically prohibited under the following California Penal Code sections:
(a)
Receipt of money for placement of persons for purposes of cohabitation (Penal Code § 266d);
(b)
Purchase of persons for purposes of prostitution of placement of persons for immoral purposes (Penal Code § 266e);
(c)
Sale of persons of immoral purposes (Penal Code § 266f);
(d)
Pimping (Penal Code § 266h);
(e)
Pandering (Penal Code § 266i);
(f)
Lewd or obscene conduct (Penal Code § 314);
(g)
Houses of ill-fame (Penal Code § 315);
(h)
Disorderly houses which disturb the immediate neighborhood (Penal Code § 316);
(i)
Places of prostitution (Penal Code § 317);[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: Penal Code § 317 was repealed by Stats. 1937, c. 399, p. 1324, § 30000.
(j)
Place of prostitution; place of lewdness; place used as bathhouse permitting conduct capable of transmitting AIDS (Penal Code § 11225).
3.
Nothing in this section shall be interpreted to permit or permit any use, conduct, and/or activity which violates any federal, state or local law of regulation.
b.
Establishment and classification of businesses regulated. The establishment of any sexually oriented business shall be permitted only in the zone district permitted, and shall be subject to the following restrictions: No person shall cause or permit the establishment of any sexually oriented businesses, as defined above, within 1,000 feet of any sensitive land use, as defined above. These limitations apply to sexually oriented businesses classified as follows:
c.
Measurement of distance: The distance between any sexually oriented business and any sensitive land use shall be measured in a straight line, without regard to intervening structures or objects from property line to property line.
d.
Location of sexually oriented business: The City of Firebaugh's Zoning Ordinance requires that sexually oriented businesses shall be allowed only in a zone where such uses are specifically permitted — the M-2 (Heavy Industrial) zone, at the time of adoption of this Ordinance. Permits for sexually oriented businesses shall be required and governed by the procedures and policies specified in the City of Firebaugh Municipal Code. In addition, any sexually oriented business shall be subject to the following restrictions:
e.
Nonconforming uses.
1.
Any sexually oriented businesses operating on (effective date of this Ordinance) that is in violation of § 25-41.11e shall be deemed a nonconforming use. A nonconforming use will be permitted to continue for a two-year period with possible extensions for extenuating circumstances to be granted by the City Council only upon a convincing showing of extreme financial hardship. Such extensions shall not exceed a total of three years in addition to the initial amortization period. Any such nonconforming business loses its right to operate as a nonconforming use, if, for any reason, it voluntarily discontinues its business operation for a period of 30 days or more or if its license to operate is revoked, and such revocation is not overturned by a court of competent jurisdiction. Such nonconforming uses, while nonconforming, shall not be increased, enlarged, extended or altered except that the use may be changed to a conforming use.
2.
A sexually oriented business lawfully operating as a conforming use is not rendered a nonconforming use by the location, subsequent to the grant or renewal of the sexually oriented business permit and/or license, within 1,000 feet, of a sensitive land use. This provision applies only to the renewal of a valid permit and/or license, but this provision does not apply when an application for a permit and/or license is submitted after a permit and/or license has expired or has been revoked.
3.
Abandonment. Notwithstanding the above, any discontinuance or abandonment of the use of any lot or structure as an adult-oriented business shall result in a loss of legal nonconforming status of such use.
4.
Amortization — annexed property. Any adult-oriented business which was a legal use at the time of annexation of the property and which is located in the City, but which does not conform to the provisions of § 25-41.11e, shall be terminated within two years of the date of annexation unless an extension of time has been approved by the City Council in accordance with the provisions of § 25-41.11f1.
f.
Injunction: A person who operates or causes to be operated a sexually oriented business without having a valid permit due to location restrictions is subject to a suit for injunction as well as prosecution for the misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $1,000 and/or 180 days imprisonment, or by both such fine and imprisonment. If an injunction is sought and granted, the sexually oriented business shall be obligated to pay the City, attorneys' fees and costs of the City, at the discretion of the Court.
g.
Exception for certain nude modeling: It is a defense to prosecution under this Ordinance if a person appearing in a state of nudity did so in a modeling class operated:
1.
By a proprietary school, licensed by the State of California; a college, junior college, or university supported entirely or partly by taxation;
2.
By a private college or university which maintains and operates educational programs in which credits are transferable to a college, junior college, or university supported entirely or partly by taxation; or
3.
In a structure:
(a)
Which has no sign visible from the exterior of the structure and no other advertising that indicates a nude person is available for viewing; and
(b)
Where, in order to participate in a class a student must enroll at least three days in advance of the class; and
(c)
Where no more than one nude model is on the premises at any one time.