Borough Getting Closer to Restricting Location of Tattoo Parlors, Adult Entertainment Shops in Town

The borough is looking to allow sex shops and tattoo parlors only in specified areas along Commerce Street, according to a proposed law introduced at a borough council meeting Monday.

Borough officials have been working on the law since last year, when the borough received an inquiry into the matter.

The borough planning board had originally proposed allowing such businesses to also set up shop on River Road, but that idea was nixed.

"Commerce was a more appropriate location for that," Zoning Officer Vince DeNave said at the meeting.

Commerce Street is located in the M-1 zoning district. The proposed law would create a special zoning district—formally called an overlay zone—that would only allow the tattoo parlors and adult entertainment establishments in certain lots along Commerce.

The street is off of Watchung Avenue near River Road and is close to a bridge over the Passaic River that connects Summit and Chatham.

Some residents had worried that the previously proposed ordinance would have allowed adult establishments or tattoo parlors to set up shop on Watchung Avenue if a day care center on River Road ever closed its doors.

That's because the previous ordinance only would have prohibited such businesses from existing within a certain distance of a childcare center, but if that center was no longer there, a tattoo parlor or sex shop could potentially open along Watchung.

The currently proposed law, if passed, would require sex shops to install two double rows of evergreen plants to keep people from being able to see the building's interior. Signs would need to be placed at either a sex shop or a tattoo parlor making it clear the establishment is off-limits to minors.

The law could be adopted as early as next month. Borough officials have said they want to establish the regulations so Chatham can remain as family-friendly as possible.