San Angelo, TX Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Sec. 403 sets fixed distance buffers for any structure housing an adult entertainment enterprise: 1,000 feet from the property line of a church or a school with an elementary- or secondary-equivalent curriculum, including its outdoor athletic fields, 1,000 feet from another adult entertainment enterprise, and 500 feet from any residentially zoned lot or public park. Distances run in a straight line from the furthest extent of the structure, including overhanging roofs, to the nearest property line of the protected use. Where an adult enterprise shares a building with other tenants, like an adult bookstore inside a shopping center, the measurement runs from the boundary of the leased space the enterprise actually occupies rather than the whole building.

Before opening, the operator must submit a site plan to the Planning Director with a notarized statement certifying compliance with the distance rules; the Planning Director has up to 30 days to flag potential violations in writing. If two enterprises end up within 1,000 feet of each other, the one established and continuously operating first is the conforming use and the later one becomes nonconforming, unable to expand. An operator may ask City Council for a locational exemption, but Council may grant it only after finding the location will not harm nearby property values, create blight, or conflict with neighborhood conservation or urban renewal plans; a granted exemption lasts one year and must be renewed at least 60 days before it expires.

Denials of an exemption or a Planning Director violation finding can be appealed, first to the Zoning Board of Adjustment for a Planning Director determination, and to a court of competent jurisdiction after either a Board or Council decision.