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

Chapter 23.89 of the Placentia Municipal Code governs adult entertainment facilities in the City of Placentia. Section 23.89.010 states the purpose: the city council finds that such facilities have deleterious social and economic effects on adjacent areas, but the primary purpose of the chapter is not to ban the use or regulate the content of adult businesses. It is to permit the facilities in locations that minimize adverse secondary effects.

Section 23.89.020 lists the covered businesses: adult book, videotape and film stores, adult motion picture theaters, adult hotels or motels, adult motion picture arcades (machines showing images to five (5) or fewer persons per machine at any one time), cabarets, model studios, sexual encounter centers, and any other business whose services or entertainment are characterized by an emphasis on specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas, including adult dance studios, men's social clubs and rap studios.

Location is the operative limit in § 23.89.030. A facility is permitted only in the C-2, community commercial, zones. It must be no closer than one thousand (1,000) feet from any similar use, no closer than one thousand (1,000) feet from any parcel containing a school, park, playground, public building or place of worship, and no closer than five hundred (500) feet from any residentially zoned property.

Section 23.89.040 sends parking to Chapter 23.78 to determine the amount of space required. Section 23.89.050 requires the planning commission to review all applications for compliance with the purpose and criteria of the chapter, with a public hearing at which evidence on potential secondary physical, social and economic impacts on neighboring properties can be presented. Notice of the review is published at least once in a newspaper of general circulation within the city at least ten (10) calendar days before the review, and notices are posted on the property at least five (5) days before the date set.