Somers Point City Zoning Code
ARTICLE XXI
Arcades and Amusement Devices
§ 114-123 Title; statutory authority; intent.
A.
This Article shall be known as "An Ordinance Regulating the Use of Amusement or Entertainment Machines within the City of Somers Point."
B.
Authority, intent and purpose. This amendment and supplement to this chapter is adopted pursuant to the Municipal Land Use Law, Chapter 291, Laws of New Jersey, 1975, N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq., and is intended to promote and protect the public health, safety, morals and general welfare and is passed in furtherance of the specific objective to properly establish, regulate and control amusement devices within the City of Somers Point and, in so doing, to protect the established character and the social and economic well-being of both private and public property; to promote, in the public interest, the utilization of land within the municipality for the purpose for which it is most appropriate; and to secure safety from fire, panic and other dangers while providing adequate light, air and convenience of access; to prevent overcrowding of buildings wherein this type of device is contained and to avoid undue concentration of traffic or population; to lessen and, where possible, to prevent traffic congestion; and to do all things as authorized in the general purposes and powers as more fully provided in N.J.S.A. 40:55D-1 et seq.
§ 114-124 Arcades to be conditional uses; conditions.
This chapter is hereby amended to allow arcades as a conditional use in the TC Transient Commercial District, HC-1 and HC-2 Highway Commercial Districts, REC-A Recreational District and the GB General Business District,[1] subject to the following:
A.
The premises on which the mechanical amusement devices within the arcade are located shall be permitted on the first floor of the premises only and shall be so arranged as to permit a clear view of the interior from the exterior at all times and shall have sufficient glass frontage to permit a clear view of the interior of the premises by a code official or law enforcement officer viewing the interior from the exterior of the premises.
B.
The arcade shall not be permitted to operate between the hours of 12:00 midnight and 9:00 a.m. If said arcade is located within a shopping center or mall or cluster of stores, the arcade shall not be permitted to operate later than the latest established closing time for the surrounding stores and, in no event, shall be permitted to operate after 12:00 midnight. Further, every operator of an arcade shall comply with the provisions of Chapter 107, Curfew, which states that minors under the age of 16 years must be out of public places and off the streets and playgrounds between the hours of 10:00 p.m. and daylight unless accompanied by a parent or guardian; and that minors aged 16 and 17 years must be out of public places and off the streets and playgrounds between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and daylight unless accompanied by a parent or guardian.
C.
Each machine shall be licensed in accordance with Chapter 174, Mercantile Licenses, of the Code of City of Somers Point, and the license shall be conspicuously displayed on the premises. No machine which would otherwise be unauthorized by this chapter shall be permitted to be licensed by the Clerk of the City of Somers Point.
[1]
Editor's Note: Pursuant to amending Ord. No. 20-1992, adopted 7-9-1992, GB General Business District has been substituted for the former RC Regional Commercial District.
§ 114-125 Location restricted.
In addition, no arcade and no mechanical amusement device within an arcade shall be permitted within 500 feet of a church or other religious institution nor within 2,500 feet of any public or private school, and there shall not be permitted any more than one arcade facility containing mechanical amusement devices located within 1,000 feet of any other arcade, the distance to be measured from building line to building line at their closest points.
§ 114-126 Compliance with regulations required; open space requirements.
Erection and installation of coin-operated or non-coinoperated mechanical amusement devices as permitted within an arcade shall comply with all local, state and federal fire and safety regulations, statutes and codes. In addition, for each one square foot of floor space occupied, taken up or covered by a machine (to be measured at its widest, deepest and longest points, whether touching the surface of the floor or not), there shall be a minimum of three square feet of open space in order to provide an established ratio between occupied space and space for the unobstructed flow of customers. If machines are located along an aisleway, the minimum width of aisles between the machines shall be 12 feet. In computing open space as used in this section, any and all interior sections of the structure reserved for office, rest room, operation, storage or other facilities shall be deducted and only the actual open unobstructed floor space shall be considered open for purposes of this calculation.
§ 114-127 Rest rooms.
A minimum of two rest rooms must be provided within the arcade or immediately adjacent thereto, one to be designated for each sex.
§ 114-128 Supervision.
During the hours of operation, the arcade must be supervised at all times by at least one responsible adult individual who shall be an employee of the owner or operator of the premises and who shall be responsible for the supervision, maintenance and operation of the premises during all hours of operation.
§ 114-129 Parking.
There shall be one automobile parking space provided for each four mechanical amusement devices and two bicycle parking spaces provided for each five mechanical amusement devices. The bicycle parking facility shall be affixed to the ground and constructed of steel pipe in a manner approved by the Construction Official.
§ 114-130 Certain activities not permitted.
No operator shall permit any activity or the operation of any machine which is illegal, immoral or which creates an undue amount of noise or danger of a breach of the peace to occur on the premises.
§ 114-131 Exterior lighting; noise.
A.
Exterior lighting shall be provided on the exterior of the arcade as approved by the appropriate board of the City of Somers Point. Lights shall provide a minimum of 10 footcandles of white light.
B.
The building or premises to be used for arcade purposes shall be designed and constructed and sufficiently insulated to provide noise elimination permitting a maximum of 50 dBa of noise measured at 25 feet from the arcade, and certification verifying the appropriate sound transmission rating to establish such decibel maximums shall be submitted to the Construction Officer as a condition precedent to granting of conditional approval for the use of the premises as an arcade.
§ 114-132 Prizes not permitted.
No operator or owner shall offer or permit to be offered within the premises any prizes or awards, whether in cash or otherwise.
§ 114-133 Certain persons not permitted to associate with business.
No operator shall knowingly permit any person convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude to be associated with the ownership, management or operation of the business.
§ 114-134 Gambling devices not permitted.
No gambling devices of any kind whatsoever, inclusive of, but not limited to, any device that dispenses any kind of payoff or reward or any device that has been judicially determined to be a gambling device or declared to be a gambling device under any law of the State of New Jersey, shall be permitted.
§ 114-135 Other occupations within premises not permitted.
No occupation other than operation of coin- or non-coinoperated mechanical amusement devices shall be permitted to be carried on within the premises of the arcade, and the arcade shall not be an accessory use to any other occupation or activity permitted within the City of Somers Point. This includes, but shall not be limited to, operation of coin- or non-coin-operated vending machines which shall dispense food, beverage or other commodities. No such vending machine shall be permitted within the arcade.
§ 114-136 Site plan to be filed.
In order to obtain approval of the conditional use of the arcade within the permitted zones, a site plan must be filed with the application establishing the applicant's compliance with §§ 114-125, 114-126, 114-129 and 114-131, indicating location of proposed parking for both bicycle and automobile; lighting; compliance with the noise level requirements; distance to the nearest public or private school or religious institution; compliance with all applicable buffer zones; distance to any other existing arcade; and such other requirements as may be imposed by other sections of this chapter.
§ 114-137 Amusement devices other than within an arcade.
[Amended 7-9-1992 by Ord. No. 20-1992]
Coin- or non-coin-operated mechanical amusement devices shall be permitted within the City of Somers Point other than within an arcade as permitted in commercial districts noted in § 114-124, provided that they are limited to three machines in an establishment and provided, further, that the principal business of the establishment is recreation, restaurant, establishment licensed to sell alcoholic beverages by the drink and convenience stores as hereinafter defined. The term "convenience store" shall be as defined in § 114-9B. Convenience stores only shall be subject to the following special regulations:
A.
Any coin-operated and non-coin-operated amusement machine or device shall be placed in such a position as to allow a clear distance of 62 inches from the end of said machine to the nearest counter or wall, so that a clear aisle for ingress and egress of at least 44 inches is maintained.
B.
Each machine shall be placed in such a location within the establishment so that the machine shall be clearly visible to the cash register area of the establishment.
C.
All machines shall be placed as far from an exit as is possible to allow the free flow of individuals given the physical layout of the establishment.
D.
Each establishment maintaining machines shall post, at a place clearly visible to the player of any machine, a notice indicating that pursuant to Chapter 107 Curfew, of the Code of the City of Somers Point, no individual 16 years of age or younger shall be allowed to use the machine after 10:00 p.m.
§ 114-138 Compliance to be condition of issuance of license.
Compliance with the terms and conditions of this article, as an amendment to Ordinance No. 3-1980, shall be a condition precedent to the issuance of a mercantile license for coin- or non-coin-operated mechanical amusement devices, and violations of the terms and conditions of this article shall be grounds for revocation of or denial of said license.
§ 114-139 Approvals required prior to issuance of license.
Before the issuance of a mercantile license, the applicant must have a letter of approval from the City of Somers Point Police Department and approval of the City of Somers Point Zoning Administrator.