2005/06/15 Council Agenda Packet

In some cases, particularly in study areas with only one adult entertainment establishment, the DCP survey did not yield conclusive evidence of a direct relationship between the adult use and the urban ills affecting the community. This reflects the fact that, in a city as dense and diverse as New York, it is difficult to isolate specific impacts attributable to any particular land use. Other cities that have conducted similar studies have acknowledged this same difficulty. For instance, the Los Angeles City Planning Department concluded that while assessed valuation of properties in areas characterized by adult uses "generally" tended to increase to a lesser degree than similar control areas, "there was insufficient evidence to support the contention that concentrations of sex-related businesses have been the primary cause of these patterns". Adult entertainment businesses were nevertheless perceived by the majority of the Los Angeles respondents as exerting a negative impact on surrounding business and residential properties. Whether or not such negative impacts had actually occurred, or were only perceived to have occurred, could not always be determined by the survey, but the study concluded that "in terms of the attitudes of the respondents towards such businesses, the conclusion must be drawn that the overall effect on surrounding properties is considered to be negati"ve." DCP's survey identified strong concerns about the negative impacts of. adult uses similar to those found in the Los Angeles study. Even in those study areas where it could not be readily determined that negative impacts were already being felt, there was a strong body of opinion, especially among residents, that adult entertainment uses were having negative impacts and that a further proliferation of these uses in the community would lead to a neighborhood deterioration. The experience of urban planners and real estate appraisers indicates that negative perceptions associated with an area can lead to disinvestment in residential neigh- borhoods and a tendency to shun shopping streets where unsavory activities are occurring, leading to economic decline. The forces that influence real estate value are described as follows: "The market value of real property reflects and is affected by the interplay .of basic forces that motivate the activities of human beings. These forces, which produce the variables in real estate market values, may be considered in four major categories: social ideals and standards (emphasis added), economic changes and adjustments, governmental controls and regulation, and physical or environmental changes."' The attitudinal data in the survey is thus significant even in those instances where the current negative impacts of adult entertainment establishments are difficult to measure. Fear of the potential proliferation of adult uses is a well founded concern. Taken alone it may not seem significant if someone smokes in a subway car, scribbles graffiti, jumps a subway "The Appraisal of Real Propen.... seventh edition. b. the American Institute of Real Estate Appraisers. vt EVER00097