This bylaw is enacted pursuant to MGL c. 40A and pursuant to the Town's authority under the Home Rule Amendment to the Massachusetts Constitution to serve the compelling Town interests of limiting the location of certain adult entertainment uses, as defined and designated herein, in response to studies demonstrating their deleterious effects.

It is the purpose of this Adult Entertainment Bylaw to address and mitigate the secondary effects of the adult entertainment establishments and sexually oriented businesses that are referenced and defined herein. Secondary effects have been shown to include increased crime, adverse impacts on public health, adverse impacts on the business climate of municipalities, adverse impacts on the property values of residential and commercial properties, and adverse impacts on quality of life. All of said secondary impacts are adverse to the health, safety and general welfare of the Town of Lancaster and its inhabitants. The provisions of this bylaw have neither the purpose or intent of imposing a limitation on the content of any communicative matter of materials, including sexually oriented matter or materials. Similarly, it is not the purpose or intent of this bylaw to restrict of deny access by adults to adult entertainment establishments or to sexually oriented matter or materials that are protected by the Constitutions of the United States or of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, nor to restrict or deny rights that distributors or exhibitors of such matter or materials may have to sell, rent, distribute or exhibit such matter or materials. Neither is it the purpose or intent of this bylaw to legalize the sale, rental, distribution or exhibition of obscene or other illegal matter of materials.

As used in this bylaw, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:

Adult entertainment uses shall be permitted only in the Light Industry 2 (LI2) District, only upon the grant of a special permit by the Select Board. Special permits shall only be issued under this section following public hearings held within 65 days after filing of an application with the Select Board, a copy of which application shall forth with be given to the Town Clerk by the applicant. Such a special permit shall not be granted unless each of the following standards has been met:

The special permit granting authority may impose reasonable conditions, safeguards and limitations on time or use of any special permit granted, including a condition that any such special permit shall be personal to the applicant, shall not run with land and shall expire upon expiration of the applicant's lease or upon sale or transfer of the subject property.

A special permit to conduct an adult entertainment use shall expire after a period of two calendar years from its date of issuance and shall be automatically renewable for successive two-year periods thereafter, provided that a written request for such renewal is made to the special permit granting authority prior to said expiration and that no objection to said renewal is made and sustained by the special permit granting authority based upon the public safety factors applied at the time that the original special permit was granted.

The provisions of this article are severable and, in the event that any provision of this article is determined to be invalid for any reason, the remaining provisions shall remain in full force and effect.