LIBERTY TWP. – Many new structures are springing up here, but so far none house “sexually oriented” adult businesses – “at least none that we know of,” Township Trustee President Christine Matacic said.

Nevertheless, trustees on Monday took the first formal step toward regulating such enterprises, following similar action by other communities in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky.

Trustees voted unanimously to send a six-page set of rules to the Butler County Planning Commission. The rules then would go to the township Zoning Commission before returning to trustees for final approval.

Public hearings will be set at each phase of the process, which will take a number of weeks.

Township Zoning Director Jon West said the township’s current zoning rules lack specific regulations for sexually oriented businesses.

“You cannot prohibit them from being in your township, but you can regulate them,” he said.

After chuckling a little about language specifying body parts in the proposed rules, trustees said there is a serious need to regulate the businesses.

“We need to establish some clear-cut guidelines where it would be acceptable and where it would not be acceptable,” Matacic said. “We need to say, ‘Here are the limits on what we can live with.'”

Trustees’ resolution says they are trying to and prevent “adverse secondary effects” of such businesses, including increased crime rates, decreased property values and changes to a neighborhood’s general character.

Matacic said the rules had been “on the back burner” for about three years, and no specific proposal sparked the action, but “it’s better to do it now than to wait until something bites us in the tail.”

Businesses that would be subject to the proposed rules include adult-oriented arcades, video stores, book stores, cabarets, massage parlors, novelty shops, motels, motion-picture theatres, and nude model studios, among others.

The proposed rules would restrict the businesses to land zoned for business use, and the businesses would be required to be located at least 500 feet away from residential subdivisions and gathering spots such as playgrounds, day-care centers, public parks, churches and businesses that sell alcohol.

The proposal also would restrict the businesses’ hours of operation.