The Houston City Council has updated the ordinances surrounding sexually-oriented businesses, essentially blocking the planned opening of the nation’s first “sex robot brothel” in the city.

The council on Wednesday expanded the definitions of an “arcade device” to include “anthropomorphic devices” that include human features, The Houston Chronicle reported.

ADVERTISEMENT

The city currently bans “adult arcades” from being operated within 1,500 feet of churches, schools, day cares, parks and residential neighborhoods, the newspaper noted.

The expanded definition prevents KinkySdollS from opening a planned location near Houston’s Anderson Park.

KinkySdollS, a Toronto-based “adult love dolls” had previously had construction halted by city inspectors for reported permitting issues, The Chronicle noted.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (D) had pledged to fight against the establishment.

"It's not the sort of business that we advertise for, or we seek to attract," Turner said late last month. "Or quite frankly, from my point of view, the sort of business that I want in the city of Houston."

Elijah Rising, a nonprofit working to end sex trafficking, launched a change.org petition called “Keep Robot Brothels Out of Houston” that gained 13,645 supporters as of Friday morning.

The city council agreed and on Wednesday also voted to prohibit customers from using arcade devices on company premises — meaning the store could not offer private rooms for customers and the dolls.

Turner told The Chronicle that the amendments updated “loopholes” to make current ordinances more efficient.

“I think the change in the ordinance will certainly capture businesses of this kind and would prevent businesses from operating in the way that this one has been described,” Turner said.

City Attorney Ronald Lewis said it would prevent the “try-it-before-you-buy-it option,” according to The Chronicle.

“We're not legislating morality here. That's not what we’re doing,” Councilman Greg Travis said. “We don't care what people do in their bedrooms. If somebody wants to order these dolls and have them in their homes, it's weird, that's fine, they can do that.”

A KinkySdollS spokesman did not respond to the newspaper’s requests for comment.

KinkySdollS and other sex robot manufacturers argue the dolls can create “healthy companions” but a medical report released earlier this year found no medical evidence to show how the dolls impact health.

The Curbing Realistic Exploitative Electronic Pedophilic Robots (CREEPER) Act passed in the U.S. House in June, banning the importation of sex dolls and robots that resemble children.