Durham, NC Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Sec. A, Adult Establishments, is a commercial use standard inside the UDO's Limited Use Standards article, and it layers four separate distance rules on top of whatever zoning district otherwise allows the use. First, no property associated with an adult establishment can be closer than 1,000 feet to the property line of a residential zone, and no building or structure tied to the use can sit closer than 50 feet to an adjacent nonresidential zone's property line -- so even in a commercial or industrial district, the use still needs setback room from its own boundary.

Second, the ordinance protects a defined set of sensitive uses: no adult-establishment property can be within 1,000 feet of a pre-existing place of worship, a state-licensed day care facility, a public or private school, a public park, or a library. Third, adult establishments must be spaced from each other -- the minimum straight-line distance between the property lines of two adult establishments is 2,000 feet, and the ordinance flatly bars locating two of them inside the same building, closing off a shared-address workaround. All of these measurements run from the property line of the proposed adult establishment to the relevant property or zoning district line, and from the property line of any separate parking lot serving the use, so an operator has to check every boundary of the site, not just the building footprint, before applying.