Tim Bruer, Madison alderman, championed the plan for an adult store zoning commission after realizing his planned restrictions were too restrictive, leaving the city open to lawsuits. Bruer has been engaged in a battle over the location of the Selective Video adult shop since the 1990s.
Realizing he alone could not effectively create proper locations for adult stores to operate in the city, Bruer needed to start a commission to deal with zoning issues. Bruer’s ordinance aims to crack down on adult stores operating as gift shops, thereby operating in venues that are not properly zoned for adult businesses.
“What we're trying to fix here is the fact that right now, porn stores can be forced into business and residential communities as ‘gift stores,’” Bruer told Milwaukee’s Daily Reporter. “The current city ordinance is so manipulated that these shops can open under that guise in any other area. We have to legitimize what they’re about.”
Bruer’s ordinance will have increased enforcement of a law defining stores displaying pornography on more than a certain percentage of their floor space, keeping them from surreptitiously operating as gift shops to find other locations, he said.
“If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck, and this is a porn duck,” Bruer said.
To keep the city from being sued for pushing out adult bookstores, Bruer’s proposed ordinance would also have allowed highways to serve as buffer zones from schools and churches.
Current law defines stores using more than 10 percent of display space for pornographic books, magazines and movies as adult entertainment centers, and restricts them to manufacturing and industrial parts of the city. Within these zones, adult stores have to be at least 1,000 feet from public parks, private homes, schools, libraries and childcare centers including daycare centers and recreation areas.
Madison is located 77 miles west of Milwaukee and is Wisconsin’s biggest city with more than 208,000 residents. It also is home to the University of Wisconsin.
“I think it’s safe to say that nobody would desire a porn shop in their community, but there are examples of communities where the shops have had minimal adverse impact because they were established with the knowledge that the threat of negative impact would have to be balanced,” Bruer said.
