Jennifer Bowman

Battle Creek Enquirer

At the request of area car dealerships, businesses such as strip clubs and adult book stores may be banned from Dickman Road — a move that city of Battle Creek officials say would protect economic development and maintain the area's cluster of auto-related businesses.

City commissioners voted 5-3 Tuesday night to introduce an ordinance that would prohibit what are considered adult businesses from operating within the Dickman Road Business Improvement District. They will take another vote at their next meeting on whether to adopt the proposal.

Commissioners Andy Helmboldt, Kaytee Faris and Kate Flores cast the dissenting votes. Commissioner Lynn Ward Gray was absent.

Partly in Battle Creek and partly in Springfield, the district was created in 1999. It taxes business in the district to pay for improvements along the Magnificent Motor Mile. The BID's board, which includes representatives from car dealerships, has requested that the City Commission make the change.

"We have the ability as a city to regulate some of these activities," Assistant City Manager for Community and Economic Development Ted Dearing said during the meeting Tuesday. "We have a business area, a cluster of businesses that try to maintain a specific destination identity. And it made sense that we provide an exception for these particular BID districts that would allow them to retain that identity."

There are no adult businesses operating there, but they would be allowed under the city’s zoning laws. In a letter to city officials, district board Chairman Gary Minneman said “it is critical that we take steps to assure that businesses that relocate or start up on Dickman Road be consistent with the family-friendly, high-quality businesses that make up the BID.”

Dearing told the Enquirer Wednesday that business owners in the BID had heard a "persistent rumor" that an adult business might open near Washington Avenue and Kendall Street.

"Basically, right in the heart of some of the dealerships there," Dearing said. "The group was obviously really concerned about that. That's what kind of precipitated that whole process."

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Adult businesses are constitutionally protected, but a city staff report says “ordinances that primarily regulate location have been upheld in numerous court decisions as they are not intended to suppress the content of the speech, but meant to address any secondary effects that an adult use would have on residential properties, churches, parks and schools.”

Battle Creek Planning Manager Christine Zuzga told commissioners Tuesday research shows there is a lack of investment and high business turnover near adult businesses.

Adult businesses are allowed in portions of the city that are zoned as intensive business and light industrial districts. They must be 1,000 feet from another adult business, churches, schools or public parks, and 300 feet from a residential district or agricultural use.

They’ve already been prohibited from operating within the Fort Custer Industrial Park.

If the ordinance is adopted, the ordinance would only affect the district that includes Battle Creek limits. The BID’s portion of Springfield already prohibits adult businesses, Springfield City Manager Nathan Henne said.

The Dickman BID is one of several separate taxing bodies that operate in Battle Creek. Others include the Tax Increment Finance Authority, Downtown Development Authority, Lakeview Downtown Development Authority and the Columbia Avenue Business Improvement District.

Minneman said in his Aug. 17 letter that the Dickman BID was created as an incentive to combat pressure from auto manufacturers that wanted to relocate car dealerships closer to I-94.

Jeremy Andrews, a member of the Battle Creek Planning Commission, said during the meeting Tuesday the city "shouldn't be doing protectionism against certain areas."

"We might agree that the activities might not be as puritanical as we like, but we're saying they're OK in our community," he said.

"Why not on that street?"

You can read the city's ordinance that regulates adult businesses here:

Read more city government stories

Contact Jennifer Bowman at 269-966-0589 or jbowman@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow her on Twitter: @jenn_bowman