From Deseret News archives:
New code cuts sites for adult business
In more of a preventive measure, the Utah County Commission recently created a specific code to deal with businesses more strip than mall.
The county hasn't received any applications for sexually oriented businesses but wanted to make sure that proper zoning was in place before any application came.
"We . . . wanted to be specific," said Utah County Commissioner Jerry Grover. "You cannot zone them out. (You) have to go through and be fair and equitable."
The new ordinance will ensure that a dance club doesn't end up right next to a day-care or an escort agency alongside an elementary school.
Included in the code are adult arcades, bookstores and video stores, as well as cabarets, motels, adult theaters and escort agencies.
While most Utah County cities already have sexually oriented business (SOB) ordinances that specify where such a business could set up shop, the county didn't have one for the unincorporated area, which is about 1 million acres, although the majority is wilderness and state-owned land.
Now, business owners wanting to put up an adult theater must do so within the "I-1 Industrial Zone."
The business must also comply with all standards and criteria in the Utah County Code for businesses, as well as the more stringent requirements for the SOBs, said Jeff Mendenhall, Utah County planning director.
"We have really been working . . . to have something in place," Mendenhall said. "It just became something that needed to be done."
Some of those requirements include staying at least 500 feet away from churches, schools or public recreational facilities and paying annual licensing fees.
The I-1 zones are scattered throughout the county and include segments in Lehi near 4800 South and I-15 and a bit of land in south American Fork. There's also a chunk on the Provo/Orem border toward Geneva Road, a large parcel in the Ironton area at 1860 South Industrial Parkway and the Suntana Raceway north of Spanish Fork. Down south, there's an area by the mouth of the Spanish Fork Canyon and a small area in Payson.
Current businesses in those parts of the county are more industrial or farm-type operations. The I-1 industrial area isn't prime real estate for customer-type businesses, Grover said.
"In the unincorporated areas, very few people locate out there for business," Grover said. "Most businesses go into the cities for sewer, culinary water, electricity, high speed Internet."
E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com
