Pocatello, ID Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Chapter 5.60 confines sexually oriented businesses, adult bookstores, theatres, cabarets, arcades, escort agencies and similar uses defined in § 5.60.020, to the Commercial General zoning district and imposes a 500 foot buffer under § 5.60.130 from churches, synagogues, mosques and temples; schools from daycare through college; any residential district boundary or residentially used lot; public parks and recreational land; and any premises licensed to sell alcohol, which may not also host a sexually oriented business. A second sexually oriented business cannot open within 500 feet of an existing one, and a building cannot hold more than one such use or expand one at the expense of another, under subsections C and D.

Distances are measured in a straight line from the nearest building wall to the nearest property line, ignoring political boundaries, under subsections E and F. A business lawfully operating on December 31, 2000 that fails one of these standards becomes a protected nonconforming use under subsection G rather than being forced to close, and a conforming business is not made nonconforming later just because a qualifying use moves in near it under subsection H. Before opening, an operator and each employee must hold a separate license under § 5.60.040, pay an initial fee of $250.00 and a $125.00 renewal fee under § 5.60.060, and submit to fingerprinting and an Idaho State Police and FBI background check.