Leominster, MA Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

City Code § 22-25 establishes the Commercial (C) district's purpose in part around adult entertainment, stating that Leominster is addressing the secondary effects such uses can bring, including increased crime, adverse impacts on public health and property values, and effects on the general quality of life, while expressly disclaiming any intent to restrict constitutionally protected speech or materials. 4: an adult entertainment use cannot be located within one thousand feet of any establishment that serves or sells alcoholic beverages for consumption on or off the premises, and cannot be located within one thousand feet of any other adult entertainment use, preventing the clustering the city council found harmful.

When granting the required special permit, the city council also has to keep the use at least a thousand feet from nine additional categories of protected uses: residential uses or districts, educational or religious structures, government-owned public facilities such as libraries, parks and playgrounds, childcare facilities, hospitals or medical clinics, senior centers or long-term care and assisted living facilities, bus stops, cemeteries, and historic districts or sites. c. c. 272, § 28 (disseminating obscene matter). Signage is separately restricted: no exterior or visible-from-outside display of sexually explicit figures or words, and no freestanding accessory sign at all, is permitted for an adult entertainment use anywhere in the city.