Leon County officials are taking a wait and see approach when it comes to making more rules for adult stores.
After Hustler Hollywood opened on North Monroe, some raised concerns that more could follow and that the store is too close to neighborhoods and schools. County Commissioner Rick Minor says in other communities, adult stores are sometimes associated with crime and blight.
“This agenda item has never been about the moral argument of whether these stores should exist. If someone wants to shop at an adult store—more power to them. I’m not going to judge. It’s really about the economic development of Leon County and about protecting the surrounding neighborhoods of these stores," Minor said during a recent County Commission meeting.
Minor wants to keep the stores from concentrating in one area and proposed an ordinance that would require any new adult stores to build at least a mile away from each other and 1,000 feet from places like churches, daycares and parks. But Commissioner Mary Ann Lindley argues Minor’s proposal seems more like a solution in search of a problem.
“In this day and age brick and mortar stores selling any product are probably going to have some stiff competition on Amazon. In terms in just the sale of adult items I don’t think we’re there to a place where we have to worry about it. We have none of it in the unincorporated area. We have an adult entertainment ordinance regarding nudity and semi nudity in places that sell alcohol. I just think we are reaching out for trouble right now that we really aren’t experiencing,” Lindley says.
Commissioners have agreed to revisit the idea in a year to look into whether there is an increase in crime near any of the three adult stores currently in Leon County.
