Asheville, NC Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Under Sec. 7-16-2(b)(8) of the Asheville Code of Ordinances, adult establishments are classed as a special use permitted only in the Regional Business, Commercial Industrial, and Highway Business zoning districts, so a planning and zoning commission special use approval under Sec. 7-5-5 is required before one can open. The code layers three separate 1,000-foot radius buffers: no lot containing an adult establishment may sit within 1,000 feet of another lot containing an adult establishment; within 1,000 feet of any residential zoning district; or within 1,000 feet of any church, school, library, licensed child care center, public recreation center, or public park or playground.

Distance is measured from the closest edge of the property occupied by the adult establishment to the closest edge of the protected property, zone, or competing establishment, and where the establishment sits in a multi-tenant building the measurement runs from the edge of the specific tenant space it occupies. The city council wrote its rationale directly into the ordinance: adult establishments carry serious objectionable operational characteristics, and studies show their concentration brings lower property values and higher crime, especially near residential areas, schools, places of worship, libraries, child care centers, and parks where juveniles congregate.

A residential zone or protected use established after an adult establishment's lawful commencement does not retroactively make the establishment nonconforming, protecting existing operators from a later-arriving school or park. The ordinance also bars any adult content, printed material, video, live show, or recorded sound from being visible or audible from outside the establishment's walls (aside from permitted business signage), and requires exterior lighting to be arranged so it does not shine onto any residential area.