Homestead, FL Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Section 30-535 of Homestead's zoning code bars a sexually oriented business, defined in Section 30-533 to include adult arcades, adult bookstores or video stores, adult cabarets, adult motels, adult theaters, escort agencies, nude model studios, and sexual encounter centers, from beginning or continuing operation within 1,000 feet of a church or library, a public or private elementary or secondary school, the boundary of any residential zoning district, or a public park adjacent to a residential district. A second spacing rule bars any two sexually oriented businesses from locating within 1,000 feet of each other, and separately requires 500 feet of distance from the property line of an isolated residentially used lot. Operating inside any of those buffers is itself declared a violation of the city's code.

Beyond the location rules, Section 30-531 requires every sexually oriented business to obtain a special exception granted by ordinance of the city council, following a public hearing, before the city's licensing department will issue a local business tax receipt. That receipt is treated the same as any other special-use license: it is subject to the same investigative procedures, involves the police department when requested, expires annually, and undergoes the same annual council review as other special exception licenses. Section 30-536 layers on use-specific rules too, barring escort agencies and nude model studios from employing anyone under 18, and creating a rebuttable presumption that a motel renting the same room twice within 10 hours is operating as an unlicensed adult motel.