Lower Merion, PA Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Chapter 155, the Zoning Code, permits adult entertainment as a regulated ('R') use in only one zoning district, the LI Light Industrial District, and nowhere else on the Table 5.1 use grid. Under Section 155-5.1.D, an R-designated use is permitted by right but must comply with the supplemental use regulations in Table 5.3 and obtain administrative approval through a zoning permit issued by the Zoning Officer under Section 155-11.1.E; it does not require a hearing before the Zoning Hearing Board or the Board of Commissioners the way special-exception or conditional uses do.

Table 5.3's entry for adult entertainment imposes two numeric separation requirements: the use cannot locate within 1,000 feet of a public or private school, and cannot locate within 3,000 feet of another adult entertainment establishment. Section 155-5.2.G explains the rationale behind these Table 5.3 distances generally: the Board of Commissioners found that certain lawful uses become detrimental to the quiet use and enjoyment of a neighborhood if allowed to concentrate, so it mandated minimum separation distances between them rather than banning any of them outright.

Because the LI District is the only district where the use is even listed, an applicant proposing an adult entertainment business elsewhere in the Township, including any Town Center, Village Center, or Commercial Center district, has no zoning pathway at all; the use simply is not on the table for those districts.