Carrollton, TX Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Article 23 of the Carrollton Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (updated April 2026) makes it unlawful to operate an Adult Entertainment Establishment anywhere in the city unless the property is zoned Heavy Commercial (HC); the use is also excluded from any Planned Development district that references the Commercial (C) or Heavy Commercial (HC) districts, even where PD zoning would otherwise allow commercial uses. Section C's locational criteria set a uniform 1,000-foot buffer measured in a straight line, without regard to intervening structures, from the building housing the establishment: 1,000 feet from any residentially zoned property, 1,000 feet from any other Adult Entertainment Establishment, and 1,000 feet from any church, synagogue, temple, civic facility, hospital, school or public park, plus any day care center, day nursery or kindergarten operating under a Special Use Permit.

The Article covers adult arcades, adult bookstores, adult cabarets, adult motion picture theaters, adult theaters, escort agencies, massage parlors, nude modeling studios and sexual encounter centers, and applies equally to a brand-new business, a conversion of an existing business, an expansion of an existing adult use, or a relocation. Section D requires the use to occupy a freestanding building with no other uses or adult establishments sharing it, requires exterior signage to comply with the Chapter 153 Sign Ordinance while banning any explicit or implied depiction of specified sexual activities or anatomical areas on exterior signs, and requires screening walls and landscaping under Article 25 of the zoning ordinance. Where the Article conflicts with the building code, fire code or any other city ordinance, the more restrictive standard controls.