Niles sets one-year moratorium on permits for sexually oriented businesses

Niles sets one-year moratorium on permits for sexually oriented businesses

By JORDAN COHEN

news@vindy.com

NILES

City council voted unanimously Wednesday to place a one-year moratorium on permits for “sexually oriented businesses” only days after police raided a Youngstown Road massage parlor that apparently was operating without a permit.

Police Chief Robert Hinton said his officers last Friday executed a search warrant at Susi Kim’s, the only massage parlor located in the city that supposedly had closed after its license expired last July.

“They were conducting business and charges are pending,” Hinton said. The chief declined to say whether the charges include prostitution.

Mayor Ralph Infante said prior to the permit’s expiration last summer, inspections by the police, fire and health departments uncovered code violations that would have had to be corrected before a new license could be issued. “We’ve got a whole folder on them,” the mayor said. “We sent them a notice of violations, but they did not respond or appeal.”

The ordinance states that the 12-month length of the moratorium is necessary to allow for “considerable study and public input” in setting “reasonable regulation of adult entertainment land uses.” It defines sexually oriented businesses as adult bookstores, adult arcades, video and novelty stores, and adult theaters. It does not, however, list massage parlors among the adult businesses to be regulated.

During the moratorium, the ordinance requires the planning commission and council to work on a regulation plan.

“We can use this time to put more meat on our ordinance,” the mayor said.

Terry Dull, city law director, said the moratorium is designed to prevent a district of adult oriented stores from being established in Niles. “We’re doing what we are legally allowed to do and I feel comfortable with the legality of the ordinance,” Dull said.

Infante said Niles wants to avoid what happened in Warren in 2011 when police uncovered prostitution and suspected human trafficking of women at 10 massage parlors, many of which were subsequently shut down.