Planning Board hosts final public hearing on adult store bylaw

Dec. 15, 2017 | Payton North
payton@thereminder.com

The East Longmeadow Planning Board met on Dec. 5 for their final public hearing on a zoning bylaw that would prohibit certain locations for adult store use.
Screencapture from ELCAT.

EAST LONGMEADOW – On Dec. 5 the East Longmeadow Planning Board met and hosted the final session of a public hearing to listen to residents’ comments regarding the issue of changing the town’s bylaws that would restrict where an adult store, such as proposed Adam & Eve, can be located in town.

Former Planning Board member Ralph Page took the liberty to look over the towns business and industrial zones for himself.

“Our zones are very narrow; to try and keep a certain distance from certain places is very difficult. If we limit it to 1,000 feet away from something, what we’re basically saying is ‘hey, we’re gonna try and throw it into the North end [of town.]’ I don’t think that’s fair to the residents,” Page said.

Additional residents voiced their disinterest in an adult store coming to town.

“I do not want this in town, it’s less than a mile from my house, my kids walk. I have a 15 year-old at the high school and a 13 year-old at Birchland Park, and I think the secondary effects on my property value. I’m not happy about it and I just don’t like it in town with my kids,” resident Chris Greco said.

Other residents chose to question the individuals who would frequent this type of store.

“The type of people who would frequent this establishment is not something I would like to see in this town. Our space for availability for industry is limited, and I certainly don’t think you should waste it on something that is so objectionable to many citizens,” Christine Williams commented.

“I was friends with a gentleman who lived in Enfield who opposed a lot of these stores in Enfield and he was able to get rid of all but the one that remains. He spent a lot of time in the jails in Somers talking to sex offenders. Some of them committed very heinous crimes, of the notorious sort, all of them, to a tee, to the last of them, it all started with pornography for them. This is how things get started in the minds of these people that succumb to this,” Tim Biggins said.

Residents questioned what other surrounding towns have for their bylaws, since they’ve successfully been able to keep out adult stores thus far.

“They have practically exactly the same wording that we’re using, because we’re using a boiler plate bylaw that has been approved by the attorney general. So all the towns basically have what we have, what they’ve done is limit it to a few locations in their town and no one has found those locations to be attractive enough to want to locate there,” Planning Board Chair George Kingston said.

“I understand the legality of not being able to keep the business out of town, though obviously that would be my first choice as well, so I understand and I support the proposed bylaws to try to limit where it can be in terms of distance from schools, churches and homes and residences as well,” resident Juanita Poole said.

In a previous hearing session residents discussed the potential for the adult storeowner operating a vehicle that could be wrapped in advertising, and could be parked in front of the storefront. This was brought up at the Dec. 5 meeting again, and the Planning Board was asked if they had control over this type of vehicle. While the store will be required to have blackout windows and won’t be allowed to have a product listing on signage, the Planning Board is not in control of what goes on vehicles.

While a resident asked if there was an “obscure rule dating back to the Mayflower” that could be found through research that would prevent an adult store from coming to town, unfortunately, the Planning Board informed the residents once again that there is truly nothing they can do but create a strict bylaw that would give limited options to adult store owners.

Between the last Planning Board meeting on Nov. 21 and the Dec. 5 meeting the Board originally scheduled a meeting to workshop and come up with locations in town using the constraints that they had hoped to have, and to come back to the Dec. 5 meeting with the available locations. However, through council of the Town Attorney, the meeting was cancelled. The Town Attorney said that since the public hearing was still open, because of Massachusetts case law, it would be best to put that session off until after the public hearing was closed.

At the close of the public hearing and Planning Board meeting, the Board stated that at their next meeting, which had not been scheduled at the date of publication, Kingston said they would “hash out what distances we want where and what zones we want, come up with a bylaw, vote on it, send it to Town Council and let them deal with it.”

To watch the Dec. 5 Planning Board meeting, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL804VoGP54 or search for ELCAT on Youtube.

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