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Nephi now has rules and regulations for sexually-oriented businesses which may want to open in the community.

The ordinance became effective immediately, upon adoption, on Tuesday at the regularly scheduled city council meeting.

The Nephi City Zoning Ordinance specifies where sexually-oriented businesses are an allowed use within the city.

The ordinance adopted on voice-vote by council members is entitled: "An Ordinance Adopting the Nephi City Sexually Oriented Businesses and Employee Licensing Act."

The entire 22-page ordinance is available for review at city hall.

"Several of the definitions and regulations for the class of business are continued in the business license ordinance amendment to be considered for adoption tonight," said Brent Bowles, mayor pro temp.

Denton Hatch, city attorney, prior to adoption of the ordinance, said he had looked at several cities' ordinances and had tried to put together one governing sexually-oriented businesses which was the best of the best.

"The regulations and definitions are quite specific and will be good tools for the city staff to use," said Randy McKnight, city administrator. "We have already established the zoning, where and where not such a business can be located, but we needed definitions so that when we receive a request we can be prepared."

The ordinance had been quite a while in the making, he said.

Bowles said cities had been warned, at a meeting of the League of Cities and Towns organization, to prepare and ordinance that would be adequate in doing what the council thought important in allowing locations for such businesses.

"Some cities had been caught off-guard," said Bowles.

State and federal law, as well as case law, make it so that sexually oriented businesses cannot be prohibited but can be controlled.

Greg Rowley, the newest council member, asked if the city had sexually oriented businesses which had already been licensed and if that would, in some way, allow them grandfathered privileges.

"We don't have any that we are aware of," said Kent Park, council member. "There are none in operation at this time."

Hatch said the purpose of the ordinance was detailed in the ordinance.

The purpose and object for its creation, he said, was to establish reasonable and uniform regulations governing the time, place, and manner of the operation of sexually-oriented businesses and their employees in the city.

"This ordinance, by its terms, is designed to prevent crime, protect the city's retail trade, maintain property values, and generally protect and preserve the quality of the city's neighborhoods, commercial districts, and the quality of urban life," said Hatch.

Regulatory standards and license requirements for such businesses and the employees of the business are outlined in the ordinance.

An adult book or video store, for example, is defined as a commercial establishment which excludes minors from more than 15 percent of the retail floor or shelf space.

The store, as one of its principal purposes, offers for sale or rental books, magazines, periodicals or other printed matter, photographs, films, motion pictures, video cassettes or video reproductions, slides, CDs, DVDs, or other visual representations, the central them of which depicts sexual activities.

Adult businesses, adult theater, business license authority, customer, employ, escort, escort service, escort service runner, nudity, outcall services, compensation, person, semi-nude, semi-nude dancing, semi-nude dancing bars, semi-nude entertainment, and sexually-oriented business are all defined in the ordinance.

Fees and bond amounts are also specified in the ordinance.

License statements are also made in the ordinance which make it illegal, for example, for anyone under 18 to be permitted in excluded areas.

It is also unlawful for alcohol to be stored or used, to offer or allow gambling or illegal possession of controlled substances.

License revocations are also outlined along with violation penalties.