Duluth, MN Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Chapter 5, Article IV of the Duluth Legislative Code licenses adult bookstores and adult entertainment establishments through the city clerk. Section 5-18 states the council's finding that such businesses operating near "churches, schools, parks, residential zones and public skywalks" are "contrary to the public interest, are harmful to public morals and safety, and constitute a nuisance," and the council invokes Minn. 242, subd. 7 to make its own distance rules prevail over the state statute. Section 5-21 sets the spacing: no license issues and no operation is allowed within 2,000 feet of a church, school, public park or children's program building; within 2,000 feet of a residential zone; within or fronting a public skywalk; within 2,000 feet of a pedestrian plaza; or within 2,000 feet of another adult bookstore or adult entertainment establishment.

Distance is measured from the center of the closest doorway to the closest lot boundary of the referenced use. A grandfather clause exempts a location where an adult entertainment establishment on a premises duly licensed for on-sale intoxicating liquor, or an adult bookstore, was already legally operating on or before August 19, 2010. Section 5-19 further limits an adult entertainment establishment's hours to those an on-sale liquor licensee may operate under Section 8-19 and state alcohol law. Applications go to the city clerk under Section 5-20 and must disclose the owner's and manager's name, the distance to the nearest church, school, park, residential zone, and skywalk, and any sex- or obscenity-related conviction; licenses expire every May 31 and cannot be transferred to a new location or person.