Santa Clara, CA Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

020 of the Zoning Code allows adult-oriented business uses only in the C-R zone, and even there only with a Conditional Use Permit approved under Table 2-4's Commercial Zones Allowed Uses and Permit Requirements; the use is not allowed by right anywhere in the City. 050's rules for measuring separation requirements. No adult bookstore, adult motion picture theater, adult cabaret, adult hotel or motel, or any other adult entertainment establishment or adult-oriented business use may be established within 500 feet of a parcel in a Residential or Mixed-Use zone, within 500 feet of another parcel used for any adult-oriented business use, within 500 feet of a parcel used for a restricted personal-services use, or within 500 feet of a parcel used for a public or private State-licensed child day care center, large family day care facility, nursery school, elementary school, secondary school, junior high school, high school, community college, or university.

Each of these buffers runs regardless of whether the other use sits inside or outside Santa Clara's own city limits, so a school or residential zone just across a jurisdictional line still triggers the 500-foot restriction. 62's stated purpose is controlling the judicially recognized secondary effects of these businesses, including increased crime, vacancies, litter, noise, and vandalism in the surrounding neighborhood, while the Chapter is drafted to preserve First Amendment protections for people who wish to own, operate, or patronize an adult business, which is why the City relies on locational criteria rather than an outright ban.