Margate, FL Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Section 40.610 of the Margate Land Development Code, titled Adult Entertainment, restricts location in subsection (A). Adult bookstores and adult theatres may be located only in commercial and industrial zones. Every adult establishment must be opaque on all sides, and no depiction of adult themes can be visible from outside. An adult bookstore or theatre cannot sit within 1,000 feet of an existing adult bookstore or theatre, measured front door to front door by airline route, inside or outside city limits. The same 1,000 feet applies to any established place of assembly, child care facility or school, to any establishment that sells alcoholic beverages for consumption on premises, and to any residentially zoned district. The section's distance table lists a 1,000-foot minimum for each of those uses.

An adult bookstore includes an establishment where 25 per cent or more of its stock is designated or advertised as X-rated or adult related, and an establishment under 25 per cent that fails to keep those articles in a separate area with no access for minors. A place of assembly or school that later opens near a conforming adult use does not make it a violation or a nonconforming use, and the section is not retroactive to establishments that conformed when established.

Subsection (B) bans nude or semi-nude entertainment in any commercial establishment where alcoholic beverages are or are available to be sold, consumed or possessed, and it bars lap dancing, simulated sexual activity and exterior advertising of that conduct. Section 40.611(H) confirms that the City requires no minimum separation from alcohol establishments except for adult uses that sell or serve alcohol.