Ordinance To Better Define 'Adult'

A Pasco County ordinance intended to regulate adult businesses fails to define some of the basic terms that characterize such enterprises.

County commissioners are slated to clarify the adult business ordinance at public hearings today and Jan. 22 by adding to the land development code definitions for "specified anatomical areas" and "specified sexual activities."

Officials say they hope the changes will make it easier to enforce the ordinance, which last was amended in January 2003.

"We haven't had a problem enforcing it," Assistant County Attorney Kristi Wooden said. "This is just a necessary change. The purpose is to better define what is an adult business."

Pasco code enforcement officials and county attorneys have pursued just a handful of adult-oriented business cases during the past five years, for an average of about three a year. Wooden said the cases typically address whether a business is conducting or promoting activity outside of its purview, if it has been abandoned or otherwise is violating its grandfathered status.

The 2003 ordinance permits adult-oriented businesses in industrial zones as long as they are more than 1,000 feet from a church, school, public park, office complex or neighborhood, said Lee Millard, the assistant zoning and code compliance administrator.

Adult businesses that were operating on or before Dec. 17, 2002, may continue to hold valid licenses, Millard said, but if they change ownership or move, they lose their grandfathered status. Currently, there are 19 grandfathered adult-oriented businesses. Most are in west Pasco.

Last year's adult business cases involved a business that moved to a location that was not within an industrial area or far enough from a church, school or neighborhood, Millard said. Another adult business was sold.

The previous adult ordinance had definitions for "specified sexual activities" and "specified anatomical areas," Millard said, but it appears those definitions were not carried forward when the ordinance was strengthened in 2002.

If the county commission agrees with Wooden's recommendations after the public hearings, the definitions will be added to Pasco's land development code.

The definition for specified anatomical areas is lengthy, but basically says that an adult business is one where having genitals, buttocks or female breasts are fully exposed or covered only with paint, tape or other devices that give the appearance of nudity is central to the enterprise.

Specified sexual activity includes displaying genitals in a state of arousal or performance of most sexual acts.

For information about the specific changes, go to www.pascocountyfl.net, click on "Commission Agenda," scroll down to item P2 (on Page 13) and click on the attachments. Today's public hearing is slated for 1:30 p.m. at the historic Pasco County Courthouse, 37918 Meridian Ave. in Dade City.