North Hempstead, NY Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)
Key Facts
- Governing section
- North Hempstead Code § 70-201.3
- Permitted zoning district
- Industrial B District only
- Residential buffer
- 250 feet, including villages
- Buffer between adult uses
- 2,000 feet
- School/church/park buffer
- 500 feet
- Per-lot limit
- One adult use per lot
Summary
North Hempstead confines every adult use, including adult bookstores, cabarets, motels, theaters and peep shows, to the Industrial B District, and layers on distance buffers from homes, schools, churches, parks and other adult uses under Article XXIA of the Zoning Code.
A. Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter to the contrary, in addition to all other restrictions set forth in this chapter or elsewhere in the Town Code, adult uses shall be restricted as to location in the following manner: (1) Any adult use may be located only in an Industrial B District. (2) Any adult use shall not be located within a two-hundred-fifty-foot radius of any area zoned for residential use, including any such area within a village within the Town of North Hempstead. (3) Any adult use shall not be located within a two-thousand-foot radius of another such use. (4) Any adult uses shall not be located within a five-hundred-foot radius of any school, church or other place of religious worship or public park, playground or playing field. (5) No more than one adult use shall be located on any lot. B. All measurements required by this section shall be made from the lot lines of the lot on which the proposed adult use is to be located.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: rev 4892187; v82 updated 2026-04-21; through 04-21-2026).
Full Breakdown
3. 2 to include adult bookstores, adult entertainment cabarets, adult motels, adult theaters, massage establishments and peep shows, may be located only in an Industrial B District. Beyond that zoning limit, no adult use may sit within a 250-foot radius of any area zoned for residential use, including residential areas inside any of the Town's incorporated villages, within a 2,000-foot radius of another adult use, or within a 500-foot radius of a school, church or other place of religious worship, or a public park, playground or playing field.
Only one adult use is permitted per lot, and all of these distances are measured from the lot lines of the parcel where the use is or would be located. The article also included a now-lapsed amortization schedule, keyed to each business's 1994 capital investment, that phased out nonconforming adult uses established before the article's effective date by dates ranging from September 1, 1995 through September 1, 1999, with the longest-operating use preserved when two uses became nonconforming solely because of their distance from each other.
Violations & Fines
Article XXIA carries no penalty subsection of its own in § 70-235, so a violation of the Industrial B, 250-foot, 2,000-foot, 500-foot or one-per-lot restrictions falls under the chapter's general penalty in § 70-235K: up to $1,000 for a first offense, $1,000 to $2,500 for a second offense within five years, and $2,500 to $10,000 for a third, with each week of continued violation a separate offense. The Town may also pursue injunctive relief under § 70-234 to restrain or abate an unlawfully located adult use.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where can an adult bookstore or cabaret legally operate in North Hempstead?
Do villages inside the Town count toward the residential buffer?
Can two adult uses share one building or lot?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in North Hempstead
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