St. Petersburg, FL Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)
Key Facts
- General buffer
- 400 ft from residential zoning, church, school, park
- Adult-to-adult buffer
- 750 ft
- Fallback buffers
- 350 ft / 700 ft if courts strike distances
- License term
- October 1 – September 30 annually
- Background check
- FDLE report on listed individuals required
- Late renewal
- grace through December 31, 10%/month penalty
Summary
St. Petersburg requires a City-issued adult use license before operating any adult cabaret, arcade, theater, bookstore, or similar establishment, and separately bars any adult use from locating within 400 feet of residential zoning, a church, school, child care facility, or park, or within 750 feet of another adult use, under City Code §§ 16.50.030.5 and 17-323.
A.No adult use establishment may be located within 400 feet of any of the following uses which use is legally in existence or has received legal authority to locate on a site, lot or parcel:1.Any property within a zoning district with an NS, NT, NSM, NTM, NPUD or NMH designation;2.Any portion of a mixed-use zoning district developed and utilized as a single or multifamily residential use; or3.Any church, school, child care facility or public park.B.No adult use establishment may be located within 750 feet of any other adult use establishment which is legally in existence or has received legal authority to locate on a site, lot or parcel. ... (a)Requirement. No adult use establishment except an adult bookstore operating only as an adult bookstore shall be permitted to operate without having first been granted an adult use license by the POD.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 54).
Full Breakdown
5 sets the spacing rules: no adult use establishment may locate within 400 feet of a residential-designated zoning district (NS, NT, NSM, NTM, NPUD, or NMH), a residential use within a mixed-use district, or a church, school, child care facility, or public park; and no adult use may locate within 750 feet of another legally established adult use. Those same protected uses are barred from moving within 400 feet of an existing adult use. If a court strikes the distances as unconstitutional, the code has fallback distances built in: 350 feet for the general buffer and 700 feet between adult uses.
On the licensing side, § 17-323 bars any adult use establishment except a stand-alone adult bookstore from operating without a POD-issued license, and classifies each business as an adult arcade, bookstore, theater, photographic/modeling studio, physical culture establishment, or cabaret. Applicants under § 17-324 must disclose criminal history for specified offenses (sexual battery, prostitution, lewdness, bigamy, incest, obscenity) within the past five years and any prior license suspension or revocation, submit a scaled site plan, and pay a nonrefundable application fee plus the cost of an FDLE background check; the Police Chief investigates every application under § 17-325.
Licenses run annually from October 1 to September 30 under § 17-327, and § 17-328 layers on a separate annual regulatory fee on top of the business tax, adult use permit, and building/zoning fees.
Violations & Fines
Operating without the required license or permit, or inside the 400-foot/750-foot buffer zones, is grounds for the POD to deny or revoke a license under §§ 17-323 and 17-326; a license may be denied for material false statements, a prior suspension or revocation within two to five years, or a listed criminal conviction within two years (misdemeanor) or five years (felony) of application. An expired license not renewed by October 1 can still be reinstated through December 31 with a ten-percent-of-fee penalty per month of delinquency before it is canceled outright.
Frequently Asked Questions
How far must an adult business be from a school or church in St. Petersburg?
Can two adult businesses operate near each other in the City?
What disqualifies someone from getting an adult use license?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in St. Petersburg
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How other cities in Pinellas County handle adult entertainment.