It is the intent and purpose of this bylaw to regulate adult entertainment establishments to promote the health, safety and general welfare of the citizens of Whitman.

It is also the purpose and intent of this bylaw to address and mitigate the secondary effects of the adult entertainment establishments and sexually oriented businesses referenced and defined herein. Such secondary effects have been shown to include increased traffic, noise, loitering, crime, adverse impacts on public health, adverse impacts on the business climate of the Town, adverse impacts on the property values of residential and commercial properties and adverse impacts on the quality of life in the Town, all of which secondary impacts are adverse to the health, safety and general welfare of the Town of Whitman and its inhabitants.

The provisions of this bylaw have neither the purpose nor the intent of imposing a limitation or restriction on the content of any communicative matter or materials, including sexually oriented matter or materials. Similarly, it is not the purpose or intent of this bylaw to restrict or deny access by adults to adult entertainment establishments and to sexually oriented matter or materials protected by the Constitution of the United States of America and of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, nor 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 or materials.

Distance requirements.

Adult entertainment establishments shall be located in stand-alone facilities and shall not be allowed within a building containing other retail, consumer, residential uses, etc.

Only one adult entertainment establishment may be located within a building.

A material condition to any adult entertainment establishment shall be that such an establishment must cease its operations between the hours of 1:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. each day.

Each applicant for an adult entertainment establishment must provide a plan, submitted with its application, showing the required parking on the same lot as said establishment.

The applicant must present a plan to the Zoning Board of Appeals to be reviewed under site plan review. Zoning Board of Appeals approval of the site plan must be obtained before a special permit may be granted.

All signs for any adult use must meet the requirements of the Whitman Sign Bylaw.[1] In addition, no advertisement, display or other promotional material which contains sexually explicit graphics or sexually explicit text shall be visible to the public from any public way, including, but not limited to, sidewalks, pedestrian walkways, highways, railways or from abutting private property. All proposed permanent signage for adult entertainment establishments shall be presented for review.

No applicant may be issued a special permit if they, or any members of the board of directors, or investors of a corporation, partnership, etc., have been convicted of violating the provisions of MGL c. 119, § 63, or MGL c. 272, § 28.

Lapse of special permit.