Fremont, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Fremont regulates adult-oriented businesses through two linked chapters. Zoning locational standards in Section 18.190.010 confine these uses to the CC-UO and CC-UN zoning districts and ban "sexual encounter establishments" from every district citywide. No adult-oriented business may sit within 600 feet of another adult-oriented business, or within 300 feet of an existing residential district, park, school, or religious facility, with distances measured from the building footprint to the property line without regard to intervening structures. On the licensing side, Section 5.10.040 requires anyone proposing to operate an adult-oriented business to file an application with the police chief on a city form and pay a nonrefundable filing fee set by council resolution; Section 5.10.030 makes it unlawful to operate without the resulting adult-oriented business regulatory permit, and performers in live shows depicting specified sexual activities need a separate performer permit.

The police chief grants the permit only after finding the business meets the Section 18.190.010 locational criteria and the Section 5.10.140 development and performance standards, which include exterior windows kept covered and opaque, sound insulation so noise is not audible off the premises, lighting of at least one foot-candle across parking areas from dusk to closing, posted 18-and-over notices, and hours limited to 8:00 a.m. through 2:00 a.m. the next day for businesses not separately regulated by the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. If the police chief neither grants nor denies an application within 30 days of filing, the applicant may begin operating subject to strict compliance with Section 5.10.140.

Permits are permit-specific and nontransferable except through the transfer procedure in Section 5.10.080, and the police chief can suspend or revoke a permit and hold an appeal hearing under Sections 5.10.110 and 5.10.120.