Agenda - Planning Commission - 12/06/2007

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Zoning Bulletin its interest in curtailing sexual activity. But when enacting the open- booth requirement, the county had referenced anecdotal reports of sexual activity occurring within peep show booths and incorporat- ed the findings from similar case law where municipalities enacted open-booth ordinances in response to drug' use and sexual conduct by booth patrons. Finally, Fantasyland suggested that there were far less drastic means of accomplishing the county's stated objective, including: reducing the size of the booth, requiring that there be a space between the floor and the bottom of the door to allow verification that only one person is in the booth, and monitoring the spaces around the booths. But the narrow "tailoring requirement" was satisfied "so long as the .., regulation promote[d] a substantial government interest that would be achieved less effectively absent the regulation" and "the means chosen [were] not substantially broader than necessary to achieve the government's interest." Fantasyland not only failed to show that the open-booth requirement was substantially broader than necessary to. curtail the targeted sexual activity, it could not produce contrary evidence that cast direct doubt on the county's conclusions. Finding no error of law, 'and given Fantasyland's inability to sus- tain a valid challenge to the ordinance, the decision of the lower court was affirmed. Variance-Board grants expansion of 50 percent of floor area of nonconforming use Calculation under 50 percent provision had to be based on original floor area Citation: Louchheim v. Zoning Rd. of Appeals of Town of Southampton, 2007 WL 2955575 (N.1'. App. Div. 2d Dep't 2007) NEW YORK (lO/09/07)-NL Housing, LLC, owned land upon which two structures operated as housing for migrant workers in the town of Southampton. In 2005, NL submitted an ap- plication to the zoning board of appeals for a variance to ex- pand the two structures, which were preexisting nonconform- mg uses. The board approved the variance for an expansion not exceeding 50 percent of the floor area of the existing structures. A section of the zoning ordinance authorized the board to grant a variance per- 4 40 i/-\ ) (" ) ..)