Adult business zones revealed

Adult business zones revealed

Commissioner Crichlow: "I think people will see this and say, 'Wait a minute. This isn't right.'"

KATI BEXLEY
kati.bexley@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 08/20/07


One St. Augustine City Commissioner believes a map showing where a proposed ordinance would allow adult entertainment businesses to locate in dozens of places in the city could ignite the public.

"I think people will see this and say, 'Wait a minute. This isn't right,'" said City Commissioner Don Crichlow.

The commission recently passed an ordinance on first reading that would allow adult entertainment businesses to open on numerous sites off State Road 312, Ponce de Leon Boulevard and West King Street.

Without restrictions, an adult entertainment business can locate anywhere in the city that is commercially zoned. The City Commission started to discuss this issue several months ago as a pre-emptive strike to limit where adult entertainment businesses can go.

The commission originally proposed a measure that restricted adult entertainment to four parcels of land off Ponce de Leon Boulevard north of State Road 16.

But roughly 70 people, many of whom live near there, attended three meetings to speak against the ordinance.

Their arguments worked.

The commission changed the ordinance to permit adult entertainment zones throughout the city, with restrictions barring them from being near schools, churches, bars and parks. Crichlow was the only dissenting vote.

Ironically, the expanded zones would make more space available on Ponce de Leon Boulevard north of S.R. 16 for adult entertainment venues.

Crichlow said the commission was wrong to expand the zones to throughout the city.

"I think it was a political response to an outcry from a group of people," he said. "I can't deny that it could affect property value, businesses and residents. Those concerns are real for those people."

"So what do you do to solve that problem? Create 10 more zones just like it. To me that makes no sense."

Commissioner Errol Jones, who did not return a call for this article, has said the city should "spread the misery" and add more adult entertainment sites out of fairness because no one wants it "in their backyard."

Other residents have told the commission they moved here from Philadelphia and Detroit because of adult entertainment zones. They said clustering the businesses creates gangs, violence, prostitution and drug sales.

Many St. Augustine residents and businesses were unaware of the new proposed ordinance and did not want to comment on Sunday. This included the Allegro, an 110-unit assisted living facility with the average age of 83, off S.R. 312 on Anastasia Island.

The measure marks a large vacant strip of land in front of the Allegro as a place adult entertainment could locate.

It's because of properties such as this that Crichlow said the commission should "bite the bullet" and think of the city as a whole. He wants to contain the businesses to the original proposed area.

"Sometimes you have to say, 'Folks, I'm sorry. You chose the short straw,'" he said.

The city has not had any applications from adult businesses, and Mark Knight, city planning and building director, doesn't expect there will be any soon.

"It's a half hour ride to Jacksonville or an hour to Daytona where (adult entertainment) is totally unregulated," Knight said. "Why would you come to St. Augustine when we now have all sorts of restrictions on it?"


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