Catawba County, NC Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Section 44-639 governs adult uses as a category of special use under chapter 44. First, every adult use must have its windows, doors and entries located, covered, screened or otherwise treated so no view of the interior of the establishment is possible from any public or semipublic area, street or way, addressing the visibility concern directly at the building envelope rather than through signage rules alone. Second, the ordinance imposes a 1,000-foot separation between any two adult uses, measured property line to property line along the shortest distance between the lines, without regard to the actual travel route a person would use, which prevents clustering even where a direct road connection is longer.

Third, no adult use may sit within 500 feet of any adjacent residential property, a separate and shorter buffer aimed specifically at protecting residential neighbors rather than other commercial adult uses. Because adult use is treated as a special use under the county's use matrix (table 44-403-1), an operator must first obtain a special use permit through the review procedure in Section 44-328 before opening, and the spacing and screening standards in Section 44-639 apply on top of, not instead of, that special use review and any other applicable landscaping, signage or parking standards in article V.

Section 44-639(d) makes clear the section is not a safe harbor: it does not authorize any business or activity otherwise prohibited by any other section of chapter 44 or by county or state law. S. 153A-123 to prevent or correct an unlawfully sited or unscreened adult use.