King City Municipal Code Art. 3 Operating and Development Standards

(a) Operating standards are a legitimate and reasonable means of ensuring that adult businesses are conducted in a manner so as to minimize their adverse secondary effects and to help assure that such operators and businesses comply with reasonable regulations related to such requirements to minimize control problems associated with such businesses and thereby protect the health, safety, and welfare of city residents, protect citizens from increased crime, preserve the quality of life, preserve property values and the character of surrounding neighborhoods and businesses, and deter the spread of urban blight. The operational requirements contained in this chapter do not unreasonably restrict the establishment or operation of constitutionally protected adult businesses in the city.

(b) The city council, in adopting operational standards, recognizes that these standards do not preclude reasonable alternative avenues of communication. For example, the closing hours requirement means that adult businesses are free to operate seven days a week for sixteen hours per day. The city council takes note of the proliferation of adult material on the Internet and its availability as an alternative avenue of communication. The city council also considers and relies on published decisions examining the proliferation of communications on the Internet. (Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union, 521 U.S. 844 [the principle channel through which many Americans now transmit and receive sexually explicit communication is the Internet]; Anheuser-Busch v. Schmoke, 101 F. 3d 325 [the Fourth Circuit rejected a First Amendment challenge to a Baltimore ordinance restricting alcohol advertisements on billboards acknowledging that the Internet is one available channel of communication]; U.S. v Hockings, 129 F. 3d 1069; U.S. Thomas, 74 F. 3d 701 [recognizing the Internet as a medium for transmission of sexually explicit material in the context of obscenity prosecutions].) The emergence of the Internet brings with it a virtually unlimited additional source of adult-oriented sexual materials available to interested person in every community with a mere keystroke. An adult business no longer has to be “actually” physically located in a city to be available in the community.

(c) The city council has also determined that a closing hours requirement promotes the reduction of deleterious secondary effects from adult facilities and reasonably relies on prior court decisions on the need for closing hours including Mitchell v. Comm. On Adult Entertainment, 10 F. 3d 123; Lady J Lingerie, Inc. v. City of Jacksonville, 973 F. Supp 1428; and City of Colorado Springs v. 2345 Inc., 896 P. 2d 272.

(d) No adult-oriented business shall be operated in any manner that permits the observation of any material or activities depicting, describing or relating to “specified sexual activities” or “specified anatomical areas” from any public way or from any location outside the building or area of such establishment. This provision shall apply to any display, decoration, sign, show window or other opening. No exterior door or window on the premises shall be propped or kept open at any time while the business is open, and any exterior windows shall be covered with opaque covering at all times.

(e) All off-street parking area and premises entries of the sexually oriented business shall be illuminated from dusk to closing hours of operation with a lighting system which provides an average maintained horizontal illumination of one-foot candle of light on the parking surface and/or walkways. The required lighting level is established in order to provide sufficient illumination of the parking areas and walkways serving the sexually oriented business for the personal safety of patrons and employees and to reduce the incidence of vandalism and criminal conduct. The lighting shall be shown on the required sketch or diagram of the premises.

(f) Except for those businesses also regulated by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, an adult-oriented business shall be open for business only between the hours of eight a.m. and two a.m. This restriction shall not apply to an adult hotel or adult motel.

(g) The building entrance to an adult-oriented business shall be clearly and legibly posted with a notice indicating that persons under eighteen years of age are precluded from entering the premises. No person under the age of eighteen years shall be permitted within the premises at any time.

(h) All indoor areas of the adult-oriented business within which patrons are permitted, except rest rooms, shall be open to view by the management at all times.

(i) Any adult-oriented business which is also an “adult arcade,” shall comply with the following provisions:

(1) No adult booth/individual viewing area shall be occupied by more than one individual at a time.

(2) Each adult booth/viewing area within the adult business shall be visible from a continuous and accessible main aisle in a public portion of the establishment, and shall not be obscured by any door, curtain, wall, two way mirror or other device which would prohibit a person from seeing the entire interior of the adult booth/individual viewing area from the main aisle. A manager shall be stationed in the main aisle at all times. Further, no one shall maintain any adult booth/individual viewing area in any configuration unless the entire interior wherein the picture or entertainment that is viewed is visible from one main aisle. The entire body of any patron in any adult booth/individual viewing area must be visible from the main aisle without the assistance of mirrors or other device.

(3) No doors are permitted on an adult booth/individual viewing are. No partially or fully enclosed adult booth/individual viewing areas or partially or fully concealed adult booth/individually viewing areas shall be maintained.

(4) The walls or partitions between viewing rooms or booths shall be maintained in good repair at all times, with no holes between any two such rooms such as would allow viewing from one booth into another or such as to allow physical contact of any kind between the occupants of any two such booths or rooms.

(5) No holes or other openings (commonly known as “glory holes”) shall be permitted between adult booths/individual viewing areas. Any such hole or opening shall be repaired within twenty-four hours using “pop” rivets to secure metal plates over the hole or opening to prevent patrons from removing the metal plates.

(6) The floors, seats, walls and other interior portions of all video booths shall be maintained clean and free from waste and bodily secretions. Presence of human excrement, urine, semen or saliva in any such booths shall be evidence of improper maintenance and inadequate sanitary controls.

(7) No beds shall be permitted in an adult booth/individual viewing area.

(j) All areas of the adult-oriented business shall be illuminated at a minimum of the following footcandles, minimally maintained and evenly distributed at ground level:

(k) The adult-oriented business shall provide and maintain separate rest room facilities for male patrons and employees, and female patrons and employees. Male patrons and employees shall be prohibited from using the rest room(s) for females, and female patrons and employees shall be prohibited from using the rest room(s) for males, except to carry out duties of repair, maintenance and cleaning of the rest room facilities. The rest rooms shall be free from any adult material. Rest rooms shall not contain television monitors or other motion picture or video projection, recording or reproduction equipment. The foregoing provisions of this paragraph shall not apply to an adult-oriented business which deals exclusively with sale or rental of adult material which is not used or consumed on the premises, such as an adult bookstore or adult video store, and which does not provide rest room facilities to its patrons or the general public.

(l) On-site Manager—Security Measures. All adult businesses shall have a responsible person who shall be at least eighteen years of age and shall be on the premises to act as a manager at all times during which the business is open. No performer may serve as the manager. The individual(s) designated as the on-site manager shall provide his/her name to the planning director to receive all complaints and be given by the owner and or operator the responsibility and duty to address and resolve all violations taking place on the premises. All adult businesses shall proved a security system that visually records and monitors all parking lot areas, or in the alternative, state licensed unformed security guards to patrol and monitor the parking lot areas during all times during which the business is open. It the business employs security guards, they shall provide written confirmation to the police chief prior to their employment that the guards are duly registered. No performer may serve as a security guard. A sign indicating compliance with this provision shall be posted on the exterior of the premises between four to six feet from the ground. The sign shall not exceed two feet by three feet and shall at a minimum be one foot bone and a half feet and shall utilize red or black printing letters of not less than one inch in size.

(m) No exterior door or window on the premises of an adult business shall be propped or kept open at anytime while the business is open and any exterior windows shall be covered with opaque coverings at all times.

(n) The following additional requirements shall pertain to adult-oriented businesses providing live entertainment:

(1) No person shall perform live entertainment for patrons of an adult-oriented business except upon a stage at least eighteen inches above the level of the floor which is separated by a distance of at least ten feet from the nearest area occupied by patrons, and no patron shall be permitted within ten feet of the stage while the stage is occupied by a performer. “Performer” means any person who is an employee or independent contractor of the adult-oriented business, or any person who, with or without any compensation or other form of consideration, performs live entertainment for patrons of an adult-oriented business.

(2) The adult-oriented business shall provide separate dressing room facilities for performers which are exclusively dedicated to the performers’ use.

(3) The adult-oriented business shall provide an entrance/exit for performers which is separate from the entrance/exit used by patrons.

(4) The adult-oriented business shall provide access for performers between the stage and the dressing rooms which is completely separated from the patrons. If such separate access is not physically feasible, the adult-oriented business shall provide a minimum three-foot wide walk aisle for performers between the dressing room area and the stage, with a railing, fence or other barrier separating the patrons and the performers capable of (and which actually results in) preventing any physical contact between patrons and performers.

(5) No performer, either before, during or after performances, shall have physical contact with any patron and no patron shall have physical contact with any performer either before, during or after performances by such performer. This subsection shall only apply to physical contact on the premises of the adult-oriented business. This limitation shall not be construed to apply to incidental physical contact.

(6) Fixed rail(s) at least thirty inches in height shall be maintained establishing the separations between performers and patrons required by this subsection.

(7) No patron shall directly pay or give any gratuity to any performer and no performer shall solicit any pay or gratuity from any patron.

(8) No owner or other person with managerial control over an adult-oriented business (as that term is defined herein) shall permit any person on the premises of the adult-oriented business to engage in a live showing of the human male or female genitals, pubic area or buttocks with less than a fully opaque coverage, and/or the female breast with less than a fully opaque coverage over any part of the nipple or areola and/or covered male genitals in a discernibly turgid state. This provision may not be complied with by applying an opaque covering simulating the appearance of the specified anatomical part required to be covered.

(Ord. 656 § 3, 2005; Ord. 669 Att. A § 3, 2007)

Every permittee of an adult-oriented business which provides live adult must maintain a register of all persons so performing on the premises and their permit numbers. Such register shall be available for inspection during regular business hours by any police officer of the city of King.

(Ord. 656 § 3, 2005; Ord. 669 Att. A § 3, 2007)

(a) Every adult-oriented business shall display at all times during business hours the permit issued pursuant to the provisions of this chapter for such adult-oriented business in a conspicuous place so that the same may be readily seen by all persons entering the adult-oriented business.

(b) The police chief shall provide each adult-oriented business performer required to have a permit pursuant to the chapter, with an identification card containing the name, address, photograph and permit number of such performer.

(c) An adult-oriented business performer shall have such card available for inspection at all times during which such person is on the premises of the adult-oriented business.

(Ord. 656 § 3, 2005; Ord. 669 Att. A § 3, 2007)

(a) It is unlawful for any permittee, operator or other person in charge of any adult-oriented business to employ, or provide any service for which it requires such permit, to any person who is not at least eighteen years of age.

(b) It is unlawful for any permittee, operator or other person in charge of any adult-oriented business to knowingly permit to enter, or remain within the adult-oriented business, any person who is not at least eighteen years of age.

(Ord. 656 § 3, 2005; Ord. 669 Att. A § 3, 2007)