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

Article 30 of the Union County Unified Development Ordinance regulates adult uses to keep them from concentrating and blighting surrounding neighborhoods. Before opening, an operator must obtain a special use permit and submit a site plan and vicinity map to the county Administrator showing compliance with every standard in the section. No more than one adult use, adult hotel/motel, adult video store, or adult lingerie modeling studio may be located within a 2,000-foot radius of another, measured in a straight line to any part of the structure or parking area, not by street distance.

Separately, the use must stay at least 1,000 feet from any residential zoning district, dwelling unit, church, synagogue, temple, school, day care, or public park or playground, again measured straight-line. No printed material, video, live show, or sound may be visible or audible from outside the building's walls. Except for an adult hotel/motel, the business cannot include sleeping quarters or private rooms, cannot share a building or property with a second qualifying use, and its gross floor area is capped at 5,000 square feet. These standards apply throughout unincorporated Union County; the incorporated towns regulate adult uses under their own codes.