Image credit: CityLaw

The Court of Appeals, after 22 years of litigation, upheld the City’s adult use zoning rules and dismissed the complaint challenging the rules. In 1994 the City’s Department of City Planning completed a study of sexually focused businesses: adult video and bookstores, adult live or movie theaters, and topless or nude bars. The study led to the passage in 1995 of a zoning amendment barring adult establishments from residential and most commercial and manufacturing zones, and mandating that, where permitted, adult businesses had to be located at least 500 feet from houses of worship, schools, day care centers, and other adult businesses. The City defined an adult establishment as one in which a substantial portion of the business was devoted to adult uses.  This was further refined under the so-called 60/40 test which defined substantial use as equating to 40 percent or more of the space devoted to adult use. This definition did not prove practical and the City amended the definition again in 2001 by removing the mandatory nature of the 60/40 rule, deleting the substantial use language, and adding qualitative criteria. (read more…)

Court found amendments expanding reach of the adult use zoning resolution to be unconstitutional.  In 2002, For the People Theaters and JGJ Merchandise Corp. filed suit to declare the 2001 Amendments to City’s adult use zoning resolution unconstitutional as a violation of the First Amendment.  The amendments broadened the resolution to cover any establishment regularly featuring live performances emphasizing specified anatomical areas or sexual activities and restricting or excluding minors.  Prior to the 2001 Amendments, the resolution only applied to an establishment if 40 percent or more of the establishment’s accessible floor area or stock was used for adult purposes.  On October 10, 2012 Justice Louis York of Supreme Court, New York County ruled for plaintiffs, declaring the 2001 Amendments unconstitutional and enjoining the City from enforcing them.

(read more…)