Blue Earth County, MN Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Article II of Chapter 4, the county's adult use ordinance adopted July 27, 1999 under the Minn. Stat. ch. 394 planning and zoning enabling legislation, applies to any adult bookstore, adult motion picture theater, adult cabaret, massage parlor, sauna, modeling studio or similar business open to the public with an emphasis on specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas, wherever it operates in unincorporated Blue Earth County. Sec. 4-91 zones these adult use, principal businesses into only the B-3 highway business district and the L-1 light industrial district, and requires a minimum 1,000 linear foot separation, measured from the closest point of the main entrance, from any residentially used or zoned property, licensed day care center, public or private school, hotel or motel, public park or trail, nursing home, youth establishment, church, and from any other adult establishment; two adult uses, principal, cannot share a building or property.

Hours are capped at 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. unless the board of commissioners approves a different schedule after finding the extended hours will not increase police calls or affect nearby uses within 1,000 feet. Before opening, an operator must obtain a county adult use license under Sec. 4-61 through 4-68: the application requires the sheriff to run a criminal history background check on every owner, the planning commission holds a public hearing, and the board grants or denies the license within 30 days, with the license expiring every December 31.

Sec. 4-40 makes a violation a misdemeanor and lets the county suspend or revoke the adult use license, or a related liquor license, after a hearing.