Lakeville, MN Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Title 3, Chapter 10 of the Lakeville City Code classifies eleven categories of sexually oriented business under Section 3-10-3, including adult arcades, bookstores, video stores, cabarets, conversation parlors, massage parlors, motels, motion picture theaters, saunas, theaters, escort agencies, nude model studios and sexual encounter centers. Section 3-10-4 makes it unlawful to operate any of them, or to work at or seek work at one, without the matching city license, and holding an ordinary business license never substitutes for it. Applicants file a notarized form with the city clerk giving their legal name and any alias used in the past five years, fingerprints or a Social Security number for a background check, proof of age, and, for a business license, the location, legal description and a scaled diagram of the premises.

Section 3-10-5 gives the city administrator 30 days to approve or issue written notice of denial, and requires denial if the applicant is under 18, delinquent on city taxes or fines, or has been convicted within a look-back period, two years for a misdemeanor and five years for a felony, of prostitution, obscenity, child pornography, indecent exposure or related sex offenses under listed Minnesota statutes. Licenses run one year, expiring every December 31, and a denied renewal locks the applicant out for a full year unless the underlying problem is corrected and 90 days pass (Section 3-10-8).

Fees are set by council resolution under Section 3-10-6, and the administrator can suspend a license up to 30 days or move to revoke it for code violations, unlawful gambling, allowing prostitution, controlled substances, or repeat sex-crime convictions on the premises under Sections 3-10-9 and 3-10-10.