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

Ordinance No. 2, the Ordinance Regulating Adult Establishments Sexually Oriented Businesses, makes it unlawful under Section 4 to operate without a license approved by the Code Enforcement Officer; applicants must submit a scaled sketch of the premises, total floor space, and the property tax parcel number, and must obtain a special use permit when zoning requires one. S. Chapter 14 Articles 7A, 26, 26A, 27, 37 or 39. The Pitt County Sheriff's Office runs the criminal history check that feeds this decision. Section 7 sets a nonrefundable $500 license fee payable to Pitt County.

Section 8 imposes two spacing rules measured building to building, not by street distance: no more than one sexually oriented business within any 1,320-foot radius of another (overconcentration), and none within 1,320 feet of a place of worship, residential dwelling, public or private school, specialty school, day-care facility, public playground, swimming pool, or park. Businesses lawfully operating when the ordinance took effect but now nonconforming get one year to come into compliance under Section 9. The ordinance applies throughout unincorporated Pitt County, in municipalities the Sheriff patrols, and in any municipality that asks by resolution for county enforcement.