PORT TOWNSEND — Putting off adoption of an ordinance regulating sexually oriented businesses, Jefferson County commissioners want county planners to look at licensing requirements and have the Sheriff’s Office review the law.
The commissioners, now in their sixth moratorium on sexually oriented businesses outside the Port Townsend city limit since 2005, reviewed parts of the ordinance Monday that proposes that adult businesses be 1,000 feet away from churches and schools.
That prompted a debate that such a large buffer requirement could create scattered adult establishments instead of clustering them into a district.
“We need to be careful we don’t create an ordinance that is in effect a prohibition,” said County Commissioner John Austin, D-Port Ludlow.
Saying the Planning Commission had done the work as asked, Commissioner David Sullivan, D-Cape George, suggested that a public hearing not be held until the ordinance is in its final draft.
Tri-Area locations
The county commissioners also asked for more specific locations where adult oriented businesses such as pornographic bookstores and topless bars could be located in the Tri-Area.
Some of the ordinance borrows from the city of Port Townsend law that was adopted five years ago and locates such businesses in the downtown historic district.
As proposed, the county’s chief civil deputy prosecuting attorney, David Alvarez, would administer licensing.
County Associate Planner David Wayne Johnson, who has taken the lead on developing the ordinance for the county Department of Community Development, said the Sheriff’s Office would have to take a role in review of applications for adult-oriented businesses.
This is because such businesses have been fronts for organized crime, including money laundering and prostitution, he said.
The county first discussed an adult-business ordinance in early May 2005, the matter fell by the wayside when other issues took higher priority.
There is no county adult business law now in place.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.