Bensalem, PA Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Section 232-701 of the Bensalem Township Code defines 'adult establishment' broadly to include adult bookstores, adult motion picture and mini-motion picture theaters, adult cabarets, adult video stores, adult arcades, adult motels, escort agencies, and nude model studios, using detailed definitions of specified sexual activities and specified anatomical areas to trigger the category. Section 232-702(a) permits an adult establishment or sexually-oriented business only in general industrial districts, and even there bars locating within 1,000 linear feet of a church, synagogue, or regular place of religious worship; a public or private elementary or secondary school; the boundary of any residential district; a public park; a licensed day-care center; or another adult establishment or sexually-oriented business.

That 1,000-foot measurement runs in a straight line between the nearest boundary lines of the two properties, without regard to intervening structures. Section 232-702(a)(2) also bars stacking two different kinds of adult establishments inside one building. Section 232-703 gives the Zoning Hearing Board discretion to waive the buffer if it finds the proposed use will not be contrary to the public interest or injurious to nearby properties. Section 232-704 grandfathers any business lawfully operating before the division took effect as a nonconforming use, frozen from expansion.

Section 232-706 limits signage to one primary sign and one secondary sign, permitting only the establishment's name with no photographs, silhouettes, or pictorial representations. Section 232-707 bars anyone under 18 from entering while the business is open and requires an attendant stationed at every public entrance to check identification.