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

Highland Municipal Code § 16.72.030 sets the location rules. Establishment is permitted only in the CG (General Commercial), PC (Planned Commercial), BP (Business Park) and I (Industrial) zones. Within those zones, subsection A bars a sexually oriented business within 750 feet of any residential use or residential zone, a religious institution, a funeral parlor, mortuary or cemetery where religious services are regularly conducted, a school, public park or playground, and any existing sexually oriented business. It also reaches zones of an adjacent jurisdiction whose name contains the word residential or its equivalent, and subsection B applies items 2 through 6 to legally established land uses in adjacent jurisdictions. Section 16.72.040 measures distance in a straight line, without regard to city boundaries or intervening structures, from the property line of the lot where the business operates to the nearest property line of the protected use.

The location is only half of the process. Chapter 5.18 requires a separate license for each location (§ 5.18.060), and § 5.18.050 makes it unlawful to operate without one. Entertainers need their own sexually oriented business entertainer license. The city manager or designee decides applications and must grant or deny within 20 business days of receiving a completed application (§ 5.18.110(C)). The applicant first obtains a certificate that the proposed location complies with Chapter 16.72 (§ 5.18.100(R)), and the application includes a drawing showing any other sexually oriented business within 200 feet of the primary entrance and any religious institution, school, public park, residential zone or sensitive use within 750 feet of it (§ 5.18.100(K)). A license is valid one year, becomes void on a transfer of ownership or a change of location or name, and renewal is filed at least 30 days before expiration (§§ 5.18.070, 5.18.080, 5.18.090). A denial of renewal blocks a new license for one year (§ 5.18.110(G)), and a final denial can go to court under Code of Civil Procedure sections 1094.5 and 1094.8 (§ 5.18.110(H)).