Walker County, GA Business Licensing & Operations: Adult Entertainment (2026)

Walker County Code § 22-327 creates a single licensing scheme covering adult bookstores, adult video stores, adult motion picture theaters and arcades, adult hotels/motels, escort bureaus, encounter centers, erotic dance establishments, and any 'bathhouse and massage parlor' whose services are characterized by an emphasis on specified sexual activities. No person may operate any of these businesses in the unincorporated county without first obtaining a currently valid County license; doing so, or continuing after a license lapses, is unlawful under subsection (c). Before a license issues, the proposed site must clear four separate 1,000-foot buffers measured from the center of the customer entry door: 1,000 feet from any residence; 1,000 feet from a church, school, government building, library, civic center, public park, hospital, community club or prison; 1,000 feet from any other adult-entertainment-type establishment; and 1,000 feet from any business selling alcoholic beverages.

Applicants must submit a surveyor's plat showing every parcel within those buffers along with its zoning and current use, and the site itself must already carry commercial zoning. Employees must be at least 21 years old, of good moral character, and individually permitted through the Planning and Enforcement Office, which vets them against a five-year criminal history covering prostitution, pandering, narcotics and other moral-turpitude offenses. Licenses run 12 months, are non-transferable, and require two consecutive weeks of newspaper notice plus an on-site sign before a License Review Board hearing. Minors are barred from the premises entirely, and no alcohol or drugs are permitted on site.