Apple Valley, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

030 permits adult businesses only in the General Commercial (C-G) District and only with an approved Conditional Use Permit. Regulated uses include adult arcades, adult bookstores, adult cabarets, adult hotels and motels, adult motion picture theaters, adult theaters, sexual encounter establishments, and other adult entertainment businesses. The Section imposes a 1,000-foot separation from another adult entertainment business, a public or private school for minors, a licensed day care facility, a church or other religious facility, a park or library or other public facility, and any residential use or district, including hotels, motels, or other transient lodging; a lot abutting a State highway or river also triggers the buffer, and no adult business may sit on a lot abutting a State highway right-of-way or a road designated major divided or major on the General Plan's Streets and Roads Plan.

Operators must design the business to blend architecturally with the surrounding area, keep advertising and displays out of view from the public right-of-way and sidewalks, and light the interior to at least two candlefoot power where the public is admitted, except in adult theaters. Exterior signs cannot show specified anatomical areas or sexual activities, and an interior sign posted in English and Spanish must warn patrons of the content inside. Windows and doors must be screened so no activity is visible from outside. Businesses established before the Chapter's February 10, 1994 effective date are legal nonconforming uses but had 48 months to comply or cease operating.