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

Under Greenville County Code § 2.5-74, operating a sexually oriented business without a valid permit is a misdemeanor. The application goes through the Greenville County zoning department and must include a scaled diagram of the premises accurate to plus or minus 6 inches; the health department, fire department and building official inspect the site and must certify compliance to the zoning administrator within 21 days of the application. Section 2.5-82 restricts location: every sexually oriented business must sit inside an S-1 district, and it is a separate misdemeanor to operate within 1,500 feet of a church, a public or private elementary or secondary school, a residential district boundary, a residential-adjacent public park, a residentially used lot, a nursing or continuing care facility, a family recreation facility such as a skating rink or public pool, a licensed child care facility, or a public library.

The same 1,500-foot buffer applies between two sexually oriented businesses, and more than one such business cannot share a single building or structure. Distances are measured in a straight line, ignoring intervening structures, from the business premises to the nearest property line of the protected use, or between the closest exterior walls for business-to-business spacing. A business lawfully operating on the article's February 7, 1995 effective date that falls out of compliance becomes a nonconforming use and gets only one year to conform, or less if it is voluntarily discontinued for 30 or more days.

Section 2.5-83 sets operating hours: no opening before 10:00 a.m. or remaining open past midnight Monday through Saturday, and no operation at all on Sunday, though adult motels are exempt from this hours rule.