Courant 5/1/07

VIP Denied Application For Retail Zoning License

May 1, 2007
By VANESSA DE LA TORRE, Courant Staff Writer

BERLIN — Very Intimate Pleasures’ application for a new zoning license to operate as a “retail” store was denied Friday on grounds that a sexually oriented business permit is needed for the kind of items VIP proposes to sell.

VIP’s Dominick DeMartino requested a zoning permit “for a business which consists of the retail sale of clothing and other related items.”

In a letter dated March 30 to the town’s chief zoning enforcement officer, Hellyn Riggins, DeMartino said the latest application does not amend VIP’s previous requests for zoning approval, which the town has rejected.

VIP is suing Berlin in federal and state court over those denials. State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has billed the showdown as a “test case” that affects municipalities across Connecticut that choose to regulate adult businesses within their borders.

DeMartino says in the new application that no items will be sold that “could be construed to constitute an “adult use” under the town’s ordinance, which prohibits adult businesses from opening within 250 feet of residentially zoned land. VIP wants to open at 717 Berlin Turnpike amid a middle-class neighborhood, a fact that has stymied its previous attempts.

“Although I understand that our previous application created significant controversy, it is my hope that you and our attorney can work as professionals in the processing of this application,” DeMartino says.

DeMartino attached a three-page list of products to be sold at VIP, among them: lip gloss, key chains, condoms, Playboy martini sets, Hustler swimwear, garter belts, “father of bride” buttons, “light up bra,” new wife voodoo doll, honeymoon survival kit, Kama Sutra body powder, shoulder pads, bath salts, incense burners, whoopee cushion, throwing knives, swords, “final fling koozie,” fishnet body wear, leather bustiers, “plus size open cup lingerie,” hangover kit, pheromone candles, Playboy Christmas ornaments and axes.

VIP attorney Dan Silver could not be reached for comment Monday.

Riggins responded Friday in a letter to DeMartino that she reviewed the list of retail items – and having “personally viewed these items at your other locations in the state” and spoken with interim Town Manager Roger Kemp about the matter – concluded that “a significant or substantial portion of these items constitute adult novelties” under the town’s sexually oriented business (S.O.B.) ordinance.

Riggins referred VIP to Kemp, who would be the person to grant an S.O.B. license or decide whether a business requires one.

“The ball’s in their court to come back to me with an application for an S.O.B. license,” Kemp said Monday. “I have not heard back from them, so I don’t know what their plans are. … It’s my job to keep an open mind until I get their application.”

Contact Vanessa de la Torre at vdelatorre@courant.com.