7.1.1 Purpose. The purpose and intent of this adult entertainment by-law is to address
7.1.1 Purpose. The purpose and intent of this adult entertainment by-law is to address and mitigate the secondary effects of the adult uses regulated herein. Such secondary effects have been shown to include increased crime, adverse impacts on public health, adverse impacts on the business climate of the Town, adverse impacts on the property values of residential and commercial properties and adverse impacts on the quality of life in the Town, all of which secondary impacts are adverse to the health, safety, and general welfare of the Town of Canton and its inhabitants. The provisions of this adult entertainment by-law have neither the purpose nor intent of imposing a limitation or restriction on the content of any communicative matter or materials including sexually oriented matter or materials. Similarly, it is not the purpose or intent of this adult by-law to restrict or deny access by adults to adult uses and to sexually oriented matter or materials protected by the Constitutions of the United States of America and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, nor restrict or deny rights that distributors or exhibitors of such matter or materials may have to sell, rent distribute, or exhibit such matter or materials. Neither is it the purpose or intent of this bylaw to legalize the sale, rental, distribution, or exhibition of obscene or other illegal matter or materials. As is set forth below, the methods employed in this adult entertainment by-law to address and mitigate the secondary effects of the adult uses regulated herein are to define the area where such uses may be located and to prevent a concentration of such uses within that area.