NORTHAMPTON – After promising that its window display would be no more racier than those at Victoria’s Secret, Capital Video finally won approval from the Planning Board last week for its adult video store on King Street.
By a vote of 4-3, the board granted site plan approval for the project at 135 King St.
The Rhode Island-based Capital Video has stores throughout New England, including in Springfield, that sell adult magazines and DVDs, sex toys and other adult merchandise.
Since Capital Video first proposed locating a store in Northampton this summer, the community has engaged in a heated debate about issues such as zoning, free speech and pornography. Opponents of the project argue that the store will have a negative impact on the neighborhood, which includes homes, schools, churches and social service offices.
Earlier this month, the company submitted plans for the store that included photographs of windows featuring men and women in lingerie, some of whom are blindfolded or brandishing whips. The City Council had earlier passed a new zoning ordinance that prohibits the display of any adult material in the windows of stores.
The council also approved ordinances barring signs from containing obscene content and limiting the display area for adult material to 1,000 square feet or less.
Citing zoning language regarding obscene material, board member David Wilensky said the Planning Board has the authority to reject the project based on the window displays under its site plan review authority.
“Your question as to if this is under our purview is answered for me in this,” Wilensky told fellow board member Keith Wilson, who had expressed doubts about the board’s ability to regulate the window display.
Lawyer Michael Pill, who represents Capital Video, told the board that his client would withdraw the design if the board deemed it offensive and submit something more suitable.
“You won’t see anything in a Capital Video window that you won’t see in a Victoria’s Secret window,” Pill said yesterday.
Noting that the applicant can change the window design in the future, Planning Board member George Kohout said that it will be up to Building Commissioner Anthony Patillo to decide whether the displays meet statutory standards.
“Basically, what we’re dealing with is we’re passing the buck to our building inspector,” he said.
Anthony Nota, a company representative, told the board that Capital Video plans to remove the second story of the two-story building that formerly housed a Kia dealership. By reducing the square footage, the company reduced the number of parking spaces required by zoning. Nota said the store will have 25 spaces, four more than the minimum. He also said that Capital Video would leave an empty space in the front of the store and sell non-adult merchandise such as lingerie, cards and novelties in another part of the store. The adult material, comprising 984 square feet, will be on display in the middle.
Board members Kenneth Jodrie, Paul Voss and Wilensky voted against granting site plan approval. Chairman Francis A. Johnson and members Keith Wilson, George Russell, Frances Volkmann and Kohout voted in favor.
Jodrie said yesterday that he found the entire submission lacking. “It was one of the poorest I’ve seen in a long time, both in terms of the quality of the drawings and making no effort to meet the requirements of what the town has been talking about for the last three months,” he said.
Opponents of the plan have 20 days to appeal the Planning Board’s decision.
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