Andrews city council designating area for certain businesses

ANDREWS, Texas (KOSA) -Last week, the Andrews city council suggested designating an area in the city for certain businesses to operate.

The city council is putting that restriction on game rooms, and are now including any sexually oriented businesses in those restrictions.

City manager Steve Eggleston says both sides have been transparent and cooperative with each other.

Last month, the planning and zoning commission made a proposal to the city council to have game rooms locate in light industrial areas.

Which would allow these businesses to operate in city limits but away from homes, however, the city council had one concern.

“There was the risk of sexual oriented businesses also being given permits to operate in our community. So we decided at that time to incorporate the two. And the planning and zoning commission also recommended that they be restricted to that same zone,” said Andrew city manager, Steve Eggleston.

These businesses can be things like adult video stores, adult bookstores, adult motel and more.

The city wanted to reiterate however, that no one is trying to open one of these establishments.

“The fact that we were taking some kind of action, I think made them (residents) a little nervous. That maybe someone was looking of doing that, but they’re not. We just want to be really proactive and address that issue before it takes place,” said Eggleston.

Eggleston says there aren’t any legally run sexual oriented businesses at the moment, but says if they do start to appear, they’ll have to follow the same rules game rooms do.

“We cannot tell them not to be present in our community, but we can set certain restrictions. In other words, put them in another zone or also having restrictions that their buildings have windows and things like that,” said Eggleston.

At the moment they haven’t had an issue with the game room located in Andrews, but if they can’t follow the city’s restrictions, they’ll be shut down immediately.

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