Sampson County, NC Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Sec. 2-31-01's Special Use Minimum Development Requirements table sets the spacing standard for an Adult Entertainment Establishment: no such establishment may locate within 1,000 feet of another adult entertainment establishment, and none may locate within 1,000 feet of any residential use or an existing church, school or other such facility. The ordinance measures that distance from the exterior walls of the building containing the regulated use to the adjacent building use, not from property lines, so an unusually deep or shallow lot can change whether two uses actually clear the 1,000-foot mark.

Because adult entertainment is listed under Sec. 2-31, Special Uses, the operator cannot obtain a routine Zoning Permit; the application instead goes through the Special Use process described in Sec. 2-30's site-plan and fee requirements and requires Planning Board approval in a quasi-judicial hearing before the Zoning Officer can issue anything, per Sec. 2-18-02(B). The same Sec. 2-31-01 table applies comparable buffers to other regulated uses nearby in the code, such as electronic gaming establishments, which must also sit 1,000 feet from any other gaming establishment or sexually oriented business and 1,000 feet from schools, daycares, libraries, parks or theaters.