LIVERMORE FALLS – Selectmen voted Monday night to take a proposed ordinance to regulate sexually oriented businesses to a public hearing Oct. 4. Residents will vote on the measure Nov. 2.

The ordinance is based on one from the town of Farmingdale that has already been successfully upheld in court.

The Livermore Falls version will have a few minor changes. Applications will be made through the town manager rather than the town clerk. Selectmen will be given 15 days, not three, to make a decision after a hearing. A business must be 500 feet from a residence, not 1,000. The 1,000-foot distance would be maintained for schools, churches and day-care facilities.

An opinion offered by an attorney from the Maine Municipal Association indicated the ordinance appeared to be a better approach than the town’s Special Amusement Ordinance and indicated a similar one from Bangor had been upheld.

The board reviewed an ordinance from Dixfield that said no adult businesses would be allowed, but the board felt an outright ban could not be defended.

One question debated by the board and audience members was whether stores already carrying magazines and videos as part of their businesses would have to shut down.

Some felt they were grandfathered while others interpreted the ordinance to require them to abide by the rule, which requires a period in which businesses are phased out.

Wayne Parker Jr., who has proposed an adult business to the Planning Board, stated that the ordinance was based purely on emotion, while Chairman Ken Jacques noted the board was trying to do the will of the people, who had indicated their objections at public meetings, and had voted for a six-month moratorium on applications for such businesses.

“It all boils down to the polls,” he told Parker, who continued to maintain that the action was motivated by emotion.

Parker also asked about storing pornography in one’s home and loaning it out without cost, and about maintaining a “porn library.”

Police Chief Ernest Steward Jr. said it would not be allowed, as the ordinance covers it in a section referring to “stock in trade.”