Sumner County, TN Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Sumner County Zoning Resolution Sec. 1103(C)(2) regulates adult entertainment activities in the unincorporated county as a use-specific standard under Chapter 11. The Board of Commissioners found that adult entertainment activities "historically have been accompanied by secondary effects that are detrimental to the public health, safety, morals and welfare," listing prostitution, narcotics and liquor law violations, breaches of the peace, assaults, and sexual contact between patrons or entertainers and patrons, plus effects on minors, residential neighborhoods, and property values as the justification for locational limits.

The spacing standard bars any adult entertainment activity within 2,000 feet of an institutionally zoned district or the property line of a lot devoted to a Community Facility Activity, excluding extensive-impact facilities. It separately bars siting within 1,000 feet of any residentially zoned property, any property devoted to residential use, any business licensed to sell beer or intoxicating liquor, or any other adult entertainment use. Distances are measured "in a straight line from and to the nearest lot lines of the respective premises without regard to intervening structures or objects," so the rule looks at lot-line distance, not walking or driving distance.

An applicant seeking the required special exception permit for an adult entertainment activity from the Sumner County Board of Zoning Appeals must submit "a certified and signed survey prepared by a licensed surveyor or engineer" documenting the distance to every listed use. The Resolution also bars conducting adult entertainment "in any manner that permits the observation of any activities inside a building used for adult entertainment purposes from outside the building," closing off window displays or open doors as a workaround.