Greenville County, SC Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

5-74, operating a sexually oriented business without a valid permit is a misdemeanor. The application goes through the Greenville County zoning department and must include a scaled diagram of the premises accurate to plus or minus 6 inches; the health department, fire department and building official inspect the site and must certify compliance to the zoning administrator within 21 days of the application. 5-82 restricts location: every sexually oriented business must sit inside an S-1 district, and it is a separate misdemeanor to operate within 1,500 feet of a church, a public or private elementary or secondary school, a residential district boundary, a residential-adjacent public park, a residentially used lot, a nursing or continuing care facility, a family recreation facility such as a skating rink or public pool, a licensed child care facility, or a public library.

The same 1,500-foot buffer applies between two sexually oriented businesses, and more than one such business cannot share a single building or structure. Distances are measured in a straight line, ignoring intervening structures, from the business premises to the nearest property line of the protected use, or between the closest exterior walls for business-to-business spacing. A business lawfully operating on the article's February 7, 1995 effective date that falls out of compliance becomes a nonconforming use and gets only one year to conform, or less if it is voluntarily discontinued for 30 or more days. or remaining open past midnight Monday through Saturday, and no operation at all on Sunday, though adult motels are exempt from this hours rule.