Swinger Parties Dealt a Setback

Swinger parties dealt a setback

SCHENECTADY — The Planning Commission on Wednesday approved the City Council’s plan to dramatically expand the types of adult businesses the city regulates — potentially putting out of business a Union Street inn that holds sex parties for swingers.

After listening to impassioned pleas from critics and backers of the Union Street Bed & Breakfast, the city commission unanimously voted to support an amendment the council is expected to pass next month that would increase the number of adult businesses the city regulates.
“I would have no problem recommending the legislation to the City Council,” Commission Chairwoman Sharran Coppola said, before polling her colleagues on whether to take a vote or wait until their meeting next week. All in attendance backed an immediate vote after the public hearing.

The legislation will now be returned to the City Council for a formal action. The council is expected to hold its own public hearing, then vote within about a month.

Lawmakers want to expand the rules that forbid adult bookstores and strip clubs from existing anywhere but industrial zones. The amendment would apply to several other kinds of adult businesses, including pornographic movie theaters, escort services, nude modeling studios and motels that offer part-day room rentals and closed-circuit pornographic movies.

The legislation follows months of debate over the adult parties hosted by B&B owner Bob Alexson, who lives at the inn. He maintains the parties are private and off-limits to regulation.

But the inn’s neighbors said the parties are intertwined with the inn and get advertised on its Web site — which features photographs of sex props such as the “Dungeon Cross” that party guests can use.

“I’m not kidding folks. I can show you everything,” said Joseph Seelaus III of Morris Avenue, as he held up a wireless laptop at the meeting.

But 19-year-old Shane Martin of Van Curler Street said the government was infringing on Alexson’s rights.

“What goes on behind closed doors should be able to be performed,” Martin said. “The censorship in our community and our city has gone too far.”

While city officials insist the legislation is not targeted at Alexson, his attorney, Stephen Coffey, said it was intended “to get at Mr. Alexson and the Union Street Bed & Breakfast. … It’s a specifically designed statute for one person.”

Coffey also warned the amendment could be construed to forbid all hotels from offering rooms intended for people interested in having sex — including honeymoon suites.

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