Preview booths at an adult video store were at the center of a heated debate in Hamden. The town ordered the owner take the booths down, citing zoning violations.
He says he's being targeted.
The argument is whether or not the booths are an expansion to the store. If they are, they have to go Hamden officials said. The owner of Video Liquidators said the town is using a zoning law to push him out of town because he sells sexually explicit material.
“I think we're being singled out and there are religious groups and (politicians) that would prefer to have us out,” said David Moon, who bought the store two years ago.
Moon is appealing a zoning board decision that ordered him to take his nine, newly installed preview booths down. He says critics on TV and in newspapers don’t preview pornographic videos like they do big blockbusters and the booths do the trick.
They are essentially viewing rooms. Interested customers can see a minute of tape for a dollar.
The board says it got wind of the booths when people started calling the mayor's office, complaining about the chance for public indecency.
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A zoning enforcement officer told Moon he had three days to remove the booths or faced a penalty to $150 a day.
His attorney appealed Thursday, citing the Hamden police department investigation in January that found no criminal activity.
The store has been in town since 1992 and residents say they’ve gotten used to it, but the booths are too much for some to handle.
“What kind of people is it attracting? You may have people with sexual criminal backgrounds that’s coming here and it just wouldn’t be safe for other people,” says Lucinda Marshall of Hamden
The board says it will review Moon’s appeal and make their decision next month.
