From adult video stores to go-go bars and gentlemen’s clubs, towns believe opening up any shop that sells sex can have a negative effect on the surrounding area and even the town itself. This is why towns like Carlstadt, East Rutherford, Lyndhurst and North Arlington have passed ordinances to restrict these kinds of businesses.
However, the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, which governs zoning over large swaths of area towns, does not limit what kinds of businesses can open up, leaving towns vulnerable to businesses many residents do not want in their backyards.
Carlstadt and East Rutherford officials admit their towns, at the doorstep of the Meadowlands Sports Complex, might draw these kinds of businesses and both towns have reacted.
While Carlstadt restricts adults-only businesses to an area outside of the center of town, the Meadowlands Commission has the final say on what gets approved. The Meadowlands Commission does not limit the types of businesses that can open up within its boundaries based on their content, according to Meadowlands Commission spokesman Brian Aberback.
"Retail is retail. A bar is a bar," said East Rutherford Mayor Jim Cassella.
According to the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and the New Jersey Constitutions, such businesses are protected and government has to allow a place for such businesses to operate, either in the town or in the region.
Only two adult businesses operate within the borders of Carlstadt, Video Extra on Washington Avenue and Stiletto Gentlemen’s Club on Paterson Plank Road. Carlstadt’s ordinance forbids either business from opening up in town, but the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission handles zoning in the district.
"The Meadowlands never approved [Carlstadt’s ordinance], what so they wound up with the [video] store," said Cassella.
Carlstadt Mayor Will Roseman did not return phone calls requesting information on how the town has dealt with the businesses operating in town.
In order to restrict adult businesses within the Meadowlands district, the towns must get the thumbs up from the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission. Carlstadt never had approval from the Meadowlands Commission to keep adult businesses off of Paterson Plank Road and Washington Avenue, so Video Extra and Stiletto were able to open up, according to Cassella.
The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission has Carlstadt’s adult entertainment area earmarked for warehouses and offices, so retail businesses like go-go bars and adult bookstores could not open up there even if town ordinance allowed them to, said Cassella.
Carlstadt’s ordinance forbids adult businesses from opening up on Paterson Plank Road, Washington Avenue and Moonachie Avenue.
East Rutherford contemplated an ordinance to restrict adult-oriented businesses to the eastern side of the borough, but the ordinance never came to fruition. The ordinance would have created an adult entertainment zone along the intersection of East Union Avenue and Murray Hill Parkway from Berry’s Creek to the railroad tracks, which would make it adjacent to Carlstadt’s adult entertainment zone.
The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission led Cassella to believe the adult entertainment zone ordinance would have no effect because the borough cannot change zoning laws for Meadowlands property.
Many towns pass ordinances restricting adult-oriented businesses because they already have such businesses in town or because some aspect of the town would make them attractive to such businesses, according to Debra Kole, a spokesman for the New Jersey League of Municipalities.
Cassella does not believe Carlstadt and East Rutherford are any more attractive to adult-themed businesses now than in years past. "The sports complex has been there for many years," he said, adding that business owners simply seek ways to make money. "These people have no shame."
The owners of Video Extra and Stiletto did not return phone calls.
Rutherford, Lyndhurst and North Arlington all explicitly limit "sexual-oriented" businesses from operating in town, but the Meadowlands Commission has the final say over what goes into the Meadowlands portions of those towns.
