Long Branch, NJ Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Section 345-47 of the Long Branch Zoning Code, "Adult entertainment uses," was added by Ordinance No. 6-95 on February 14, 1995. Subsection A explains the city's rationale: adult entertainment uses are recognized as having serious objectionable operational characteristics that create a deleterious effect on the city's neighborhood characteristics, the administration of schools and the commercial and economic viability of the community, so regulations are needed to prevent the deterioration of Long Branch's neighborhoods and protect the community's economic prosperity and quality of life. Subsection B makes the baseline rule a citywide prohibition: adult entertainment uses are prohibited in all zones, except where expressly permitted.

Subsection C then adds a 100-foot buffer that applies even in a zone where the use is expressly allowed. In such a zone, no adult entertainment use may be located within 100 feet of churches, monasteries, chapels, synagogues, convents and rectories; schools up to and including the 12th grade and their adjunct play areas; or public playgrounds, public swimming pools, public parks and public libraries. Because the section is part of Chapter 345, Zoning, it operates through the city's normal zoning permit process: an adult entertainment use has to be sited in a district that expressly permits it and clear all three buffer categories before the Planning and Zoning Office or Zoning Officer can sign off, and it is enforced alongside every other zoning use restriction in the chapter.