Grand Forks, ND Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Under Grand Forks City Code section 21-3003, anyone operating an adult bookstore, adult cabaret, adult motion picture theater, semi-nude model studio, or sex paraphernalia store in the city needs a sexually oriented business license, and every employee of such a business needs a separate employee license from the city clerk unless the employee already holds the business license. Section 21-3005 sets the fees: 100 dollars for the initial business license and 50 dollars for annual renewal, plus 50 dollars for the initial employee license and 25 dollars for renewal.

Applications go to the city clerk's office in person, notarized, and must disclose the applicant's legal name, prior names used in the last five years, proof of age, and any specified criminal activity conviction within the past five years. The city clerk must act on a complete application within 30 days under section 21-3004, issuing a temporary license to a pre-existing lawfully operating business while the annual decision is pending. Section 21-3015 fixes locations: a sexually oriented business must sit at least 500 feet from any parcel holding another sexually oriented business, a church, synagogue or other place of worship, a public park, or land zoned R-1, R-2, R-3, R-4 or a comparable PUD, and at least 1,000 feet from any elementary, middle or secondary school, measured in a straight line from the closest structure to the closest property line.

Section 21-3012 bars operation between 2 a.m. and 8 a.m. on weekdays and between 2 a.m. and noon on Sundays. A business already operating as a lawful nonconforming use when it files its application keeps that status under section 21-3015 subsection 3.