Catoosa County, GA Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Chapter 10, Article II of the Official Code of Catoosa County regulates adult bookstores, adult motion picture theaters and arcades, adult dancing and erotic dance establishments, escort bureaus, and massage parlors as a single category of 'adult entertainment establishment.' The Board of Commissioners' stated purpose, in Section 10-31, is curbing the disorderly conduct, prostitution, and blight the board found associated with these businesses in comparable communities, while stopping short of an outright ban. Operators must hold both a license and a business tax certificate under Section 10-66 before opening, and the zoning administrator handles applications, which require a 30-day newspaper and on-site notice before the Board of Commissioners hears them.

Section 10-37 confines every adult entertainment use to a C-1 commercial zoning district and imposes a 700-foot buffer from single-family or multifamily residences and residentially zoned land, from churches, schools, government buildings, hospitals, nursing homes, community clubs and day care centers, from any other adult entertainment establishment, and from any business selling alcoholic beverages, measured in a straight line from the building to the nearest affected property line. Section 10-33 layers on operating rules: no one under 18 may work or be admitted on the premises, dancing must occur on a platform at least two feet off the floor with dancers kept six feet from patrons, no alcohol may be served, sold, or possessed, and the business may open only between 8:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m.

Monday through Friday and 8:00 a.m. through noon on Saturday. Violating any provision is a misdemeanor under Section 10-38, punishable as provided in Section 1-19, and also grounds for the zoning administrator to suspend or revoke the certificate immediately.