Acworth, GA Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Article II of Chapter 10 defines a wide range of regulated uses in Section 10-43, including adult bookstores, adult video stores, adult motion picture theaters and arcades, adult dancing and erotic dance establishments, and escort or introduction services, each tied to 'specified sexual activities' or 'specified anatomical areas' defined in the same section. Section 10-44 separately makes it unlawful to publicly display genitals, pubic area or buttocks in a lewd fashion. Section 10-47 imposes airline-measured, property-line-to-property-line distance rules: no covered business may sit within 1,000 feet of land zoned or used for single-family or multifamily housing, within 1,000 feet of a church, school, government building, library, civic center, park or playground, within 1,000 feet of another regulated establishment, within 1,000 feet of any establishment selling alcohol, or within 1,000 feet of a day care or child care facility, and each site needs at least three acres with 100 feet of road frontage.

The same section confines these uses to the heavy industrial zoning category and bars them outright from the jurisdiction of the Acworth Downtown Development Authority. Division 2 layers a licensing regime on top of the zoning: Section 10-71 makes operating without a permit unlawful, and Section 10-74 requires a detailed application covering the applicant's history, fingerprints, photographs, character references and a surveyor's plat showing proximity to protected uses. The city has 30 days under Section 10-76 to investigate before the mayor and board of aldermen can grant a permit, and Section 10-53 bars alcohol or controlled substances on the premises of any licensed adult entertainment establishment. An unpermitted or noncompliant operation is declared a public nuisance under Section 10-48, subject to abatement in addition to prosecution.