Kalamazoo, MI Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

The City regulates what it calls 'adult regulated uses' in two linked places: Chapter 46 of the City Code, Regulation of Sexually Oriented Businesses, and § 50-4.4C(1) of the Zoning Code, which lists the same uses, including adult arcades, adult bookstores, adult cabarets, adult motion-picture theaters, adult model studios, adult physical culture businesses and adult personal service businesses, as a commercial use category. The zoning code's spacing rule, § 50-4.4C(1)(d)[1], is the core locational control: no adult regulated use may operate within 750 feet of a religious assembly, a public or private educational facility, a family or group day-care home, a children's or family entertainment use, a lot primarily devoted to residential use, another adult regulated use, a public park or recreational area, or a residential zoning district boundary.

Distances to a lot-based use are measured in a straight line from lot to lot, ignoring intervening buildings, while distances to a park or a zoning boundary run from property line to property line. A site seeking to operate an adult regulated use must also submit a full site plan showing every one of those nearby uses within 750 feet, and no building may house more than one adult regulated use unless the Zoning Board of Appeals approves consolidating uses removed from elsewhere in the City.

On the operations side, Chapter 46 bars an adult regulated use from staying open to customers between 2:00 a.m. and 7:00 a.m., under § 46-4H. Violating Chapter 46 is a misdemeanor under § 46-7, punishable by a fine of up to $500 or up to 90 days in jail, or both, with each day of violation a separate offense, and a repeatedly violating premises can be pursued as a public nuisance.