Oxnard, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Section 16-337 restricts adult businesses to properties designated for that use within the M-1 (light manufacturing) and M-L (limited manufacturing) zones, with adult motels separately confined to the CBD, C-O, C-2, C-M and BRP zones. Regardless of zone, subsection (C) bars any adult business within 1,000 feet of another adult business, a religious institution, school, public building, public park, recreation area, youth organization, residential zone, or property used for residential purposes. Section 16-338 measures that buffer as a straight line, ignoring intervening structures, from the closest exterior wall of the adult business to the nearest property line of the protected use.

Operating requires an adult business permit issued by the city manager under Section 16-340, supported by a sworn application, a scale diagram of the premises, a land surveyor's certificate mapping every protected use within 1,000 feet, and a nonrefundable application fee plus an annual permit fee set by council resolution. Permits run one year and must be renewed 30 to 60 days before expiration under Section 16-343. The city manager can suspend a permit for up to 30 days for noncompliance under Section 16-345, and must revoke it for a second suspension-triggering violation within a year, false statements on the application, or operating during a suspension; a revocation bars reapplication for one full year. m.