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

Fayette County Code Chapter 8, Article V regulates sexually oriented businesses and massage parlors. Section 8-128 makes it unlawful to operate a sexually oriented business without a valid permit for the specific classification sought, issued through code enforcement under § 8-129's application process, which requires photographs, fingerprints, a criminal background check and a scaled floor plan. Section 8-131(b) lists the grounds on which the county administrator or designee must deny that permit: the business cannot sit within 1,000 feet of any school, religious institution, public park, child care facility, or land zoned for residential purposes, measured in a straight line from the front door of the applicant's business to the nearest point on the other use's property line, without regard to intervening structures.

It likewise cannot sit within 1,000 feet of any other permitted sexually oriented business, measured front door to front door, and it must be located in a section of the county zoned M-1, light industrial, the only district where the use is allowed. A permit is also denied if the applicant holds an alcohol license for the same premises, since § 8-128(b) separately bars operating a sexually oriented business anywhere alcohol is sold, or if the applicant has a disqualifying criminal conviction. A denied applicant can appeal in writing to code enforcement within ten days and, on further denial, to the Board of Commissioners under § 8-132, which must hold a hearing within 30 days.