Contra Costa County, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

The county's 1981 adult entertainment ordinance, Chapter 88-12, was written 'to prevent the concentration or clustering' of these businesses so they do not blight surrounding neighborhoods, per Section 88-12.202. Section 88-12.404 defines nine specific categories that trigger the rules: adult bookstores, adult motion picture theaters, adult mini motion picture theaters, adult hotels or motels, adult motion picture arcades, cabarets featuring topless or nude performers, massage parlors, model studios, and sexual encounter centers, plus a catchall for any other business emphasizing specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas as those terms are defined in Sections 88-12.406 and 88-12.408.

Section 88-12.602 sets three distance floors: five hundred feet from any area zoned for residential use, one thousand feet from any other adult entertainment business, and one thousand feet from a public or private school, park, playground, public building, church, other religious nonprofit facility, or any establishment likely to be used by minors. These distances apply even in zoning districts where the business type would otherwise be a permitted use.

Section 88-12.604 makes clear the rule reaches more than brand-new businesses: opening a new adult entertainment business, relocating one, or converting an existing business into one all count as 'establishing' a business under the chapter. An operator who cannot meet the spacing standards has one avenue left: Section 88-12.802 lets the planning agency grant a land use permit modifying the location rules under Chapters 26-2 and 82-6, but only after making the finding required by Section 26-2.2008.