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

Chapter 20 of Title 5 regulates adult-oriented businesses and states its purpose in § 5-20.01: to prevent the deleterious location and concentration of these businesses and avoid side effects that make them incompatible with residential areas, schools, places of worship, and family and youth-oriented uses. Section 5-20.02 defines the covered uses: adult arcade, adult bookstore or merchandise store, adult cabaret, adult hotel or motel, adult motion picture theater, adult theater, modeling studio or figure studio, and sexual encounter establishment. A business meets the regular and substantial test if sexually oriented material takes more than 25% of its display area, if it presents such entertainment on four or more separate days within any 30 day period, or if at least 25% of its gross receipts come from such sales or presentations.

Location is set by § 5-20.03. The business must be in the Special Use Overlay Zone, hold a permit, meet the development and performance standards, and meet every distance rule. No adult-oriented business can be within 500 feet of another. The buffer from any existing residential zone or use, park, church, or school is 1,000 feet when the underlying zone is MPD and 500 feet when it is C-G. Distances are measured as a radius from property line to property line, without regard to intervening structures.

The permit comes from the Police Chief under § 5-20.04. The applicant files on a City form and pays a nonrefundable filing fee set by Council resolution, and supplies proof of age 18, fingerprints, a photograph, a floor-plan sketch, and a parking and lighting diagram. The Police Chief tells the applicant within five working days if the application is incomplete and must grant or deny within 20 working days of a completed application. The application is approved unless a listed finding applies, such as a zoning location violation, a false statement, an applicant under 18, an unpaid fee, or a conviction for a specified criminal activity. Permits renew annually, hang near the entrance, and are nontransferable under § 5-20.08. Performers need a separate permit under § 5-20.05. Denials, suspensions, and revocations go to the City Council under § 5-20.07, which holds a hearing within 30 days of the notice of appeal and decides within 45 days.