Fort Worth regulates sexually oriented businesses (SOBs) under City Code Chapter 5 and the Unified Development Code, requiring annual licensing, criminal-history screening of operators, mandatory zoning buffers from sensitive uses, and detailed interior layout standards aimed at limiting secondary effects on neighborhoods.
Chapter 5 defines SOBs to include adult arcades, bookstores, cabarets, motion picture theaters, motels, and nude modeling studios. Operators and managers apply through the Fort Worth City Secretary, submit fingerprints, and clear background checks before opening. The Unified Development Code requires SOBs to sit at least 1,000 feet from churches, schools, public parks, residential districts, and other SOBs. Establishments must keep open sightlines to performance areas, ban private viewing booths, enforce a six-foot stage separation between performers and patrons, and exclude anyone under 18. License denial, suspension, and revocation follow violations. Fort Worth defends Chapter 5 under the secondary-effects doctrine.
Operating an SOB without a Chapter 5 license, locating within 1,000 feet of protected uses, allowing patron-performer contact closer than six feet, admitting minors, or installing closed viewing booths triggers citations, license revocation, and abatement.
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