Rockdale County, GA Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Each format, adult media store, adult arcade, adult movie or video theater, adult dance establishment, escort service, or lingerie modeling establishment, needs its own separate license and its own $350 nonrefundable application fee (sections 22-146(f)-(g)). Some formats are barred outright regardless of licensing: adult device stores, adult encounter parlors, adult facilities and bathhouses cannot be licensed at all (section 22-144). Under section 22-147(c), the director must deny a license if the site is zoned other than M-1 (limited industrial) or M-2 (general industrial), sits within 1,000 feet, measured property line to property line, of a school, religious institution, public park, hospital, government building, library, licensed day care, alcohol-selling establishment, or residentially zoned land, or is within 1,000 feet of another licensed adult entertainment establishment.

Section 22-143(b) separately bars operating anywhere alcohol is licensed for sale. Licenses expire every December 31 (section 22-150), and the director must act within 45 days of a complete application (section 22-147(b)); a denied applicant has ten days to appeal to the board of commissioners (section 22-148). Managers and employees each need their own $100 photo permit, fingerprinted through the sheriff, renewable annually for $50 (sections 22-156 through 22-163). m. m. Monday, ban anyone under 18 or visibly intoxicated, require 10-footcandle lighting indoors and in parking areas, and, for dance establishments, an elevated stage set at least three feet from patrons behind a three-foot barrier.