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

Porterville Municipal Code Chapter 15, Article V regulates sexually oriented businesses. Section 15-42 classifies seven categories as sexually oriented businesses: adult arcades, adult bookstores/novelty stores/video stores, adult cabarets, adult motels, adult motion picture theaters, adult theaters, and adult model studios. Section 15-44 makes it unlawful to operate, maintain, manage or conduct any of these without a valid sexually oriented business permit issued by the city for that particular classification; a business already operating when the article took effect had thirty days to apply. Section 15-45 puts the city manager, or a designee, in charge of granting, denying, suspending, renewing or revoking permits, and requires a detailed application covering the applicant's identity, any prior permit denials or revocations tied to the applicant or its officers, the proposed location and a sketch showing parking, landscaping, signage and lighting.

Section 15-51 sets an annual permit fee, fixed by council resolution rather than printed as a dollar figure in the code itself, that the council has determined at least offsets the actual cost of monitoring and policing each business; the fee is due yearly on the permit's issuance anniversary and becomes delinquent thirty days later. Section 15-52 authorizes city, police, fire and health inspectors to inspect the premises. Article V also bars conduct that is independently a state crime, cross-referencing Penal Code provisions on pimping, pandering, disorderly houses and places of prostitution, and § 15-40(C) declares a "sexual encounter establishment" not a permitted use at all. Operational standards in § 15-60 add stage-separation, dressing-room and security-guard requirements for businesses offering live entertainment. Violations are prosecuted under § 15-62.