Courant 9/7/06

The article that alerted us to the whole thing.
I will never forget the day I came home to find the copy of this article and note left in my door by Andrea & Jean.

My first thought: Oh my God! I will never be able to sell my house!
2nd thought: Oh my God! My 4 year old won’t even be able to play in the yard!
3rd thought: This can’t possibly happen… there must be some sort of laws about porn shops being a certain distance from residential homes!

My husband’s first thoughts aren’t suitable to print here!

From courant.com
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Sex Shop Blocked; Appeal In Works
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`Very Intimate Pleasures’ Still Hoping To Open Store On Berlin Turnpike

By DON STACOM
Courant Staff Writer

September 7, 2006

BERLIN — Very Intimate Pleasures wants to open an adult bookstore and
sex shop in a former furniture store on the Berlin Turnpike, but a town
official has refused to approve the plan.

Zoning Enforcement Officer Hellyn Riggins last month rejected VIP’s
request for a zoning certificate, and the company’s lawyer is taking the
case to the zoning appeals board later this month.

VIP operates similar stores in Hartford and Orange, and it ran into
community opposition over plans to open another in Manchester this month.

The Manchester shop, much like the one planned for Berlin, is in a
former Huffman Koos store with high visibility to highway traffic.
Manchester residents pressed their town government to block the store, but
officials concluded that they couldn’t do that legally. The Manchester
store is scheduled to open this month.

VIP’s application to do business at 717 Berlin Turnpike says the store
would sell sex toys and novelties, lingerie, adult books and DVDs, and
similar items. VIP of Berlin LLC has a contract to buy the roughly
14,500-square-foot building and 1.3-acre property from Stamford-based
Mainsay Corp., according to the paperwork filed at town hall by Dominick
DeMartino, a member of VIP of Berlin LLC.

VIP’s stores are owned by different limited liability companies but
share “common ownership,” according to Brian Silver, the New Britain
attorney representing VIP of Berlin.

Riggins notified the company on Aug. 8 that she would not sign a
certificate that the business complies with local zoning codes. The company
needs that certificate before it can open the shop.

Riggins wrote that the company had not demonstrated that Mainsay was
aware of the application and hadn’t proved that less than half of the
store’s inventory would be adult merchandise.

On Wednesday, Silver said the zoning code doesn’t require notification
of Mainsay, but he nevertheless submitted documents later in August to
prove that the owner already knew of VIP’s application. Silver also
said the limit on the adult inventory is based on Berlin’s sexually
oriented business ordinance, not on the zoning code. The company might need
to seek a sexually oriented business permit if more than half of the
stock is adult-themed, but that still doesn’t give the town any authority
to block the zoning certificate, he said.

Riggins declined to comment because VIP’s zoning appeal is pending. The
appeals board will consider the case at a public hearing at 7 p.m.
Sept. 26 at town hall.

VIP is opening a shop in Manchester off Exit 63 on I-84. When nearby
homeowners learned of the plan, they persuaded town officials to put a
six-month moratorium on new sex shops until attorneys could research how
to regulate them without violating the Constitution. But because VIP
had already applied, the moratorium does not apply to its project.

Contact Don Stacom at dstacom@courant.com.
Copyright 2006, Hartford Courant

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