Springfield, IL Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Springfield does not allow adult uses, defined elsewhere in Chapter 155 to include adult bookstores, adult theaters, adult arcades, adult novelty stores, adult nightclubs and adult entertainment cabarets, as a use permitted outright anywhere in the city. Sec. 3(a) instead makes them a conditional permitted use available only in the B-2 General Business Service and I-1 Light Industrial districts, and only if the city council finds the use conforms to all applicable district regulations and sits at least 1,000 feet from the nearest residential zoning lot, church, day care, cemetery, public housing, school, library, park, or other publicly operated recreation facility.

Sec. 3(b) lays out a review timeline for the conditional permit: after the notice and public hearing required by Sec. 185, the Planning and Zoning Commission must send its recommendation to the city council within 90 days of the application being filed with the zoning administrator, and the council then has 60 days from receiving that recommendation to deny the permit outright or grant it with or without conditions. A related section, Sec. 1, separately defines the adult use categories and states that in the I-2 Heavy Industrial district adult uses are a permitted use rather than requiring this conditional permit process, while B-2 and I-1 both require it.

A conditional permit granted under this process can later be revoked by the city council for violating either the specific conditions of the grant or the general conditional-use standards in Chapter 155, following notice to the property owner and a further Planning and Zoning Commission hearing.