Douglas County, CO Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Section 1-1202, the Principal Uses list for the C Commercial District, states plainly that a sexually oriented business is not permitted as a commercial use in the PD Planned Development District and is not permitted in any zone district other than C Commercial. Section 1-1212's Minimum Setbacks provisions go further, requiring the business to sit a minimum of 1,500 feet from an area zoned for residential use, a single-family, two-family, or multifamily dwelling, a church, park, or library, a state-licensed day-care facility for children or adults, a school or educational facility serving persons age 18 or younger, or any other sexually oriented business.

That distance is measured in a straight line, without regard to intervening structures or objects, from the nearest wall of the business to the nearest lot line of the protected use or the nearest boundary of the affected park or residential district. Section 1-1217's Sign Standards add that sexually explicit advertisements or other promotional displays for a sexually oriented business that are harmful to minors cannot be visible to minors from a pedestrian way, walkway, or other public area. Section 1-3602 defines the covered uses narrowly: an adult arcade, bookstore, novelty shop, video store, cabaret, motel, motion-picture theater, adult theater, sexual encounter establishment, or nude model studio, but the definition excludes state-licensed medical or psychological professionals engaged in recognized sexual therapy.