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

Title 9, Chapter 6 defines an adult entertainment establishment broadly: any commercial establishment, including an adult bookstore, adult video store, adult theater, adult nightclub, sexual encounter center, massage parlor, rap parlor, lingerie modeling or sauna, that regularly presents material or exhibitions emphasizing specified sexual activities or specified anatomical areas. It also covers any establishment arranged with booths, cubicles, rooms, compartments or stalls for viewing sexually-oriented films or live entertainment. Section 9-602 requires a license for each establishment and allows only one license per location. No license or interest in one can be transferred.

It is unlawful for an entertainer or operator to work in or about an unlicensed establishment, and unlawful for an employee to knowingly do so while adult entertainment is presented. Existing establishments had 120 days from the chapter's effective date to apply or cease operations. Under § 9-603 the application goes to the Board as an original with six copies, and the Board forwards copies to the Police Department, the Department of Codes Administration, the Health Department and the Fire Department. The applicant must be at least 18, give residential addresses for the past three years and employment for five years, disclose prior licenses and sex-offense or moral turpitude convictions, list court-sustained citations from the past two years, and supply fingerprints and two portrait photographs.

Establishments with booths must submit a scaled diagram. The Police Department, Building Inspector and Fire Department inspect and report in writing within 30 days, and the Board then meets within 20 days of the results. A misdemeanor conviction or plea bars a license for two years and a felony for five years. A sustained Zoning Code violation within the past two years bars a license for one year, and a false or misleading statement bars it for one year unless the misstatement concerned age. The chapter prints no spacing distance: it ties approval to compliance with the applicable zoning ordinances and the Zoning Code.