Stearns County, MN Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Land Use and Zoning Ordinance No. 4, regulates sexually oriented businesses across unincorporated Stearns County. Principal adult uses, meaning businesses where adult content is the primary or sole activity, are allowed only as a provisional use in the Industrial zoning district. A requires that any Adult Use-Principal sit at least 1,500 radial feet, measured in a straight line from the closest point of the building's property line, from the property line of residentially zoned property or dwellings, a licensed day care center, any public or private elementary, middle, junior high, senior high or home school, a public library, a public or private park, another Adult Use-Principal, or an on-sale liquor establishment.

No two principal adult uses may occupy the same building or property, and an applicant for a construction site permit must submit a professional land surveyor's certification that the proposed use meets the setback. to midnight, Monday through Saturday, and exterior displays visible from any public way or unregistered property are prohibited. Accessory adult uses, meaning incidental adult merchandise sold within a broader business, are capped at 10 percent of the establishment's floor area and 20 percent of its gross receipts, must physically separate adult movie rentals into a controlled room with doors removed, must wrap adult magazines to conceal all but the title, and are barred from internal or external advertising of adult materials. 241 are flatly prohibited, not merely regulated. 4, after which they must come into compliance or cease.