Cleveland, OH Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

07 of Cleveland's Zoning Code regulates where adult bookstores, adult video stores, adult motion picture theaters, adult video arcades, adult cabarets, adult theaters and adult live entertainment arcades may operate, even in districts that otherwise permit them. 07(c), no adult entertainment use may be established within 1,000 feet of a residence district, within 1,000 feet of another adult entertainment use (or a lot with a valid permit for one), within 1,000 feet of a pool or billiard hall, video or pinball arcade, tattoo or body-piercing shop, or within 1,000 feet of a church, synagogue, mosque, school, community center, public library, park, playground, hospital, nursing home or day care center.

No two adult entertainment uses may share the same premises or lot, and an adult entertainment use can never be treated as merely 'accessory' to another business. 07(d)). 07(e)). Council adopted these restrictions, citing secondary-effects findings from Indianapolis and New York, to prevent concentration of adult uses near residential neighborhoods and other protected uses, while stating the section is not intended to restrict First Amendment-protected access to adult materials.