Marietta, GA Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Chapter 8-20 of the Marietta Code of Ordinances, rewritten by Ordinance No. 8297 in August 2022, requires anyone operating an adult arcade, adult bookstore, adult cabaret, adult motion picture theater or sexual device shop to hold a valid adult establishment license under Section 8-20-030(A), and every employee of such a business must separately hold an adult establishment employee license. Section 8-20-050 sets the initial adult establishment license fee at $200, with $100 for annual renewal, plus $50 for an initial employee license and $25 to renew it annually, all paid to the business license manager.

Section 8-20-190(A) then locks in the spacing requirements: no adult establishment may operate within 1,000 feet of any parcel zoned multifamily or single family residential, within 1,000 feet of a church, elementary or secondary school, library, civic center, public park or public playground, or within 500 feet of another adult establishment, with distances measured property line to property line. Section 8-20-190(D) grandfathered lawful nonconforming establishments that predated the 2022 rewrite, giving them until December 31, 2023, to conform or apply for a hardship extension through a hearing officer.

06(B) confines adult establishments to Community Retail Commercial, Regional Retail Commercial, Light Industrial and Heavy Industrial districts and bars them from the central business district and the Downtown Marietta Historic District. The business license manager reviews applications within 30 days and can deny or revoke a license for repeated unlawful conduct, a disqualifying criminal conviction, or a location that fails the spacing rule.