Spartanburg County, SC Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

County Council grounded the article in its own review of secondary-effects studies from cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix and Austin and in South Carolina case law, including State v. C. Code §§ 4-9-25 and 4-9-30(9) (Sections 42-101, 42-102). Section 42-103 defines eleven categories of "sexually oriented business," from adult arcades, bookstores and cabarets to adult motels, escort agencies, nude model studios and massage parlors, expressly excluding licensed hospitals, physicians, chiropractors and massage therapists from that last category. Section 42-104's distance rules keep any of those businesses 1,000 feet from another sexually oriented business, a school, church, day care, nursing home or public park, and 200 feet from any residential property line, measured in a straight line under Section 42-105.

00, due by March 1. 00 employee permit under Section 42-120. , and Section 42-122 bars anyone under 18 from entering, working at, or buying anything from the premises. The county department can suspend a permit for any article violation under Section 42-116 and must revoke it under Section 42-117 for offenses like allowing prostitution, drug sales or repeat violations by employees, with a revoked operator barred from a new permit for a full year.