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'No Nudes,' Vassalboro Voters Say

June 10, 2009 - VASSALBORO -- No unregulated nudity.

That's what residents favor after overwhelmingly voting to approve an "adult-only businesses ordinance" at town meeting Monday night.

The ordinance, which is effective immediately, regulates where, when and how "sexually oriented businesses" may operate in Vassalboro.

More than 200 people attended town meeting at the Vassalboro Community School gymnasium. After some discussion, a vote was called on the ordinance and residents held up red cards signifying their support of the proposal. Fewer than a dozen people opposed the measure.

"It's a starting point," resident Robert Picher said after the vote. "We had nothing in place before. If it doesn't work out, we can modify it."

Town officials said they drafted the proposal in response to residents' complaints after the Feb. 23 opening on Route 3 of the Grand View Topless Coffee Shop, which featured topless waitresses and waiters serving coffee and doughnuts.

The coffee shop burned to the ground last Wednesday morning in a fire that has been ruled arson.

Grand View's opening in this town of 4,200 -- and its destruction last week -- have drawn national attention.

Most every resident who spoke Tuesday night supported the ordinance; some said they thought it should be stricter or ban sexually oriented businesses outright.

Selectmen Lauchlin Titus said the select board heard from many concerned residents about the topless coffee shop.

Though selectmen initially considered an outright ban on such businesses, they decided it would have been unconstitutional and would have drawn the town into a lawsuit.

"We worked a long time on this," Titus said. "This ordinance goes as far as the select board was willing to go on restricting those activities. ... You reach a certain point where you're expressly prohibiting something."

The ordinance says its aim is not to prohibit free speech or target sexually oriented businesses, but rather to address the "negative secondary effects" of such businesses.

Those effects are described as "perceived decreases in value in both residential and commercial properties" and the way in which the businesses "can adversely affect the character and quality of life of a town and can be incompatible with surrounding uses."

It restricts sexually-oriented businesses from being less than 500 feet from the property line of "a business which caters to the general public" and less than 1,000 feet from the lot lines of residences, schools, day-care centers, places of worship, public parks and recreational areas.

The ordinance also prohibits the serving of alcohol and limits hours of operation from 8 a.m. to midnight each day. Violations would result in a penalties.

Luanne Chesley said she supported the ordinance so "at least we're safe and we have something in place."

"This isn't what Vassalboro stands for," Chesley said, referring to sexually oriented businesses. "Vassalboro is becoming a joke" because of national media coverage of the topless coffee shop. "I have a lot of pride in this town and I don't want it to become a joke."

The Rev. Jane Schwab of the North Vassalboro Covenant Church said she was pleased the town came together to make a stand.

"I think right now we have the right balance for the times," she said. "We haven't enjoyed all this publicity."

Scott Monroe, Kennebec Journal, 6/9/09


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