Pottstown, PA Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Chapter 13, Part 7 of the Borough Code regulates adult entertainment businesses through a licensing and zoning scheme adopted in 1999 to address the secondary effects of these businesses rather than their speech content, as Section 701 explains. Section 711(1) confines every adult entertainment business to the HM Heavy Manufacturing District defined in the Borough's Zoning Ordinance, Chapter 27, and bars operating one in any other zoning district. Section 711(2) then layers distance requirements on top of that zoning restriction: an adult entertainment business cannot operate within 500 feet of a church, synagogue, mosque or temple used primarily for religious worship, within 500 feet of a public or private school (including day cares, elementary and secondary schools, and colleges), within 500 feet of the boundary of a residential district, within 500 feet of another residential use, or within 500 feet of a Borough park or recreational area.

Section 711(2)(F) separately bars establishing, substantially enlarging or transferring one adult entertainment business within 1,000 feet of another, and Section 711(2)(G) bars more than one such business, or an enlargement of one, within the same building. Section 711(2)(H) measures every distance in this section as a straight line to the nearest property line, ignoring municipal or county boundaries. and noon on Sundays, and Section 709 lets the Borough revoke a license for a year for reasons including allowing prostitution, drug sales or operating while suspended.