Dothan, AL Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Dothan City Code § 114-26 defines adult entertainment as any adult bookstore, adult video store, adult theater, adult nightclub, or commercial establishment charging a fee to present material emphasizing specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas for observation by patrons. Under the Table of Permitted Uses at § 114-131.2, that use carries a "P" for Permitted in only one of the sixteen zoning columns listed, H-I, Heavy Industry; every Single-Family, Multi-Family, Manufactured Home, Business, and Office/Institutional column, plus L-I Light Industry, is blank, meaning the use is not permitted there at all.

The Planning and Development Department's administrative official administers and enforces this chapter under § 114-39, with authority to enter premises for inspection and to institute abatement, citation, or civil action against a violation. A property owner disputing an administrative determination on where adult entertainment may locate can appeal to the Board of Zoning Adjustment under § 114-41, though the board cannot grant a "use variance" placing the use in a district where article VII does not allow it; only rezoning to H-I accomplishes that. Because the use requires a building and/or business license consistent with its H-I location, opening in any other district exposes the operator and property owner to zoning enforcement under § 114-43.