Smyrna, TN Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Title 9, Chapter 5 of the Smyrna Municipal Code covers adult bookstores, adult cabarets, adult motion picture theaters, adult mini-motion picture theaters, and any premises arranged with booths or rooms for viewing adult films or where an entertainer provides adult entertainment for profit. Section 9-503 sets the core rule. A license covers one establishment at one fixed place, an operator with more than one establishment needs a license for each, and a license or any interest in it cannot be transferred. Entertainers, employees, and operators commit an unlawful act by knowingly working at an unlicensed establishment. No license issues unless the premises are lawfully zoned for the use, so the Town of Smyrna's separately adopted Zoning Ordinance decides where such a business can locate. This chapter prints no distance figure.

Operators apply to the Police Chief, who files the application in triplicate and sends copies to the Town Clerk and the applicant. Everyone with a direct interest, including stockholders holding more than 5% of a corporate applicant, answers under oath and supplies fingerprints, two portrait photographs, three years of residential addresses, and any history of revoked licenses. Within ten days of receiving the Police Department investigation results, the Police Chief conditionally grants, denies, or holds the application for further investigation of up to 30 days. Every license is then held pending the Town Council's consideration of the required special use zoning permit. A denied applicant who asks within ten days gets a public hearing before the Town Council. If the Council denies and no agreement follows, the Town Attorney must file for declaratory judgment in the Chancery Court of Rutherford County, Tennessee within five days.

Employees and entertainers need a separate permit from the Police Chief (§ 9-506). Licenses and permits expire after one year, and renewal applications are due at least 60 days before expiration, with fees and late penalties set in the fee schedule adopted with the annual budget ordinance. No adult-oriented establishment can be open from 1:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. Monday through Saturday, or from 1:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Sunday (§ 9-513). Booths and closed rooms are barred, performances must take place on a stage at least 18 inches above the floor and six feet from the nearest entertainer, employee, or customer, and no minor can be on the premises.