Jonesboro, AR Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Sec. 117-249 of the zoning code sets two separation standards for adult entertainment uses. First, the building housing an adult entertainment use cannot sit within 3,000 feet of any other adult entertainment use, measured as a radius from the exterior wall of the subject building. Second, the same building must stay at least 2,000 feet from a church, library, day care center, or elementary, middle or high school, and from single-family, duplex or multifamily residential uses, also measured by radius from the exterior wall. Together those two buffers effectively push adult entertainment uses into a narrow set of commercial or industrial parcels away from residential neighborhoods and institutional uses.

The section also bars content, not just location: subsection (3) prohibits conducting the business in any manner that allows observation from a public right-of-way of material depicting or describing specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas, including through displays, decorations or show windows. Because these standards sit in Chapter 117 (Zoning), Article VII, Division 1, compliance is confirmed at the site-plan and building-permit stage through the planning department before a use can locate or expand, and the buffers apply on top of whatever business license the operator otherwise needs to operate in the city.